The Prodigal Sun
by RoarendDarkhowl
Summary: I'm a stranger with a familiar face, surrounded by strangers with familiar faces. Will the old me survive the transition, will I be able to retain what sets me apart from everyone in the world, but most importantly...will I want to? A re-evolution of myself as a ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, because what good is a second chance if you stay the same as before?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Hello, all! I have a tendency to get ideas in my head after being particularly inspired by someone else's work. It makes me want to try something similar and make it my own, if only to see how I would do it differently.**

 **I'd like to credit both 'Dreaming of Sunshine' by Silver Queen and 'Catch Your Breath' by Lang Noi for this particular inspiration. My putting this work out has no bearing on the continuation of any other stories of mine, including my first one, Run With The Pack.**

 **Please let me know if you enjoy it and would like me to continue, sincerely yours, Roarend Darkhowl.**

 **Also, I do not own Naruto.**

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The Prodigal Sun

Prologue

My name is Haruo Sarutobi, pleased to meet you! I've decided you're deserving of a little insight on the rather unique circumstances of my life, lucky you!

I'm currently experiencing something that I once thought impossible – a second chance at life. The thing is it isn't my original life that I'm getting a second chance at, oddly enough.

You see, I'm not from the world I currently reside in, I'm not even sure how I got to this world, and I'm also uncertain as to why this world is real. Yeah, it's a pretty messed up situation, isn't it?

Try this on for size: I've somehow been dropped off in the Naruto-verse without a clue of how I got here or how _here_ exists.

I know, right? That same popular series of shows, books, and paraphernalia that I poured hours of my life into, was now my existence – talk about studying for your future, huh?

Now, my life from before is drastically different from the one I'm currently living, not only in the large and magically obvious ways, but also in the small personal changes that I made for myself.

That's further ahead though, let's back up and start off with the catalyst for all this, eh?

Dying was almost anticlimactic considering how many sleep-less nights I had thinking about it and having mini-panic attacks. I spent so much time just agonizing over not _being_ anymore, that the whole drifting away in my sleep thing, while not surprising, was somewhat of a letdown.

See I'm not a believer in the whole 'salvation and world beyond our mortal one' talk…ironically that last part ended up being true though. My death definitely didn't change any of my beliefs in religion, but it was so pathetic that I wonder if a religion just couldn't have bothered to take my death under their jurisdiction and I just got shuffled into a crazy pocket dream world of my own dementia.

Don't get me wrong, it was certainly a better way to go than the more horrifying and pants filling experiences I'd imagined. I guess I really shouldn't bitch too much, but I was certainly pissed off when I found out I'd died.

I mean, no Heaven, no Hell, not even the standing in a field for all eternity thing…none of that, really?

By the way, stepping back for a moment to the whole not being surprised about drifting off in my sleep thing, I was not surprised at all, because of what I'd been told for years by my doctors.

I was obese, to an unhealthy degree, and I wasn't doing anything to get any better. I ate badly, I abhorred exercise, and I got out of my parent's basement maybe two or three times a month, a really good month.

That's right. I was _that guy_ who was living in his parent's basement, so get off my case. I was also on medication, vitamins, and a strict diet that I strictly ignored. It wasn't like I didn't get any help for my problems. I just disregarded all of it.

In the end, my negligence and other factors lead to my body having enough of my shit and giving out on me at only twenty-six years of age, I guess.

Moving on from that depressing little snapshot of my former existence, the first thing that I noticed after dying, and what probably woke me up in all honesty, was the utter _nothingness_ that surrounded me.

I couldn't tell where I was, how I got there, or even what form I was taking. No shit, I couldn't _see_ what I looked like or even feel myself having any semblance of motion. I just…was.

No sight, sound, feeling, taste, or smell. I had no senses to speak of. Hell, I had no ability _to_ speak about it, and so it was just my thoughts and me.

Not a good situation at all. My mind is not a safe and happy place for me to hang out for extended stays. I knew the inevitable would end up happening.

I'm sure everyone has a little piece of themselves, no matter the size, that's seemingly critical of whatever you do. Well, in my case, that piece is a rather large part of my former life and it was one of the causes of my downfall.

You'd figure after achieving my demise my self-criticism – or self-loathing depending on your definition – could pat itself on the back and take a hike…well, let's just say I wasn't holding my breath. I mean, it's just how I was wired. Sure enough, soon I began hearing echoes of the same drivel I'd repeated to myself my whole life.

" _You're a screw-up…and it's finally caught up to you…"_

" _I'm sure your family won't even notice you're gone…"_

" _They're better off without you…"_

" _No one is going to miss you…"_

However…I found remnants of my cynicism stirring to life and I soon found myself not particularly caring enough to listen to any scathing remarks my subconscious tried to feed me.

I mean, was pretty far along the line of thinking that I was a goner and that I'd arrived at my final destination, so I tuned it out as irrelevant. The ease with which I did that wouldn't dawn on me until later.

I had a lot of time to reflect while I was in this state of blah, time that I spent really confronting some hard truths about the way I'd lived. Everyone used to talk about how, 'you get judged by your actions in life when you die' or 'you're presented with the bad things you did in your previous life and punished for the amount of bad you did appropriate to the crimes'.

I didn't do any of that, unless I was subtly being manipulated in some way, but I did come to a bit of a head with myself.

I'm not sure if you can have a self-intervention, but that kind of describes what happened with me while I drifted as a nothing amongst nothingness. I threw all of my flaws in my face and mourned the opportunities I'd lost out on due to them.

Yep, I went ahead and threw myself a pity party for one in the afterlife, go figure.

But I was just so bitter. I never got be in love and do all the kinds of things that that entails, I never finished my education or made anything of myself for my parents to be proud of, though what I mourned the most was that I never fulfilled my dreams. I won't tell you about them as they're not important now, but that really hit me hard and it was something that I despaired over.

My flaws had been all about my mentality when I truly broke them down.

I'd had no motivation, because I was depressed. I'd had no social life, because I was too anxious and afraid of the possibility of rejection. I'd had no confidence or self-esteem, because I was my biggest critic and loathed the fact that I wasn't perfect.

I'd been miserable…and it was my own fault.

I'd had so many hands reach out to me at different points in my life and I'd take them at first, only to cast them aside after a fashion because my stubborn pride wouldn't allow me to stand with help. I had had such a complex, a neurosis that I couldn't identify with my limited education in the human psychological condition.

So, the final product arrived at long last: I began to think of what I could've done differently. However, before I could even get started…I finally felt something.

Of course.

It figures, I'm just about ready to forge a new plaque entitled 'how I'd do things another way' and I'm interrupted. Can't be helped, I guess, what with my being born…or reborn…or whatever.

Yeah, _that_ sucked, big time.

One second I'm an amorphous nothing and the next I was hot, sticky, and suffocating! I mean damn, why couldn't I breathe? When did I become solid? Also, why was it so freaking dark still?

I can stand being in the dark and floating like nothing, but being uncomfortably sticky and struggling for air in a hot darkness not unlike a sauna, was pushing boundaries I'd never tested before. You know lack of sexual experience and all that jazz.

Just when I thought I'd asphyxiate and die, AGAIN, my eyes were assaulted by a blinding light that, no matter how blurry, hurt like a bitch!

Next, I could feel myself being cradled by mammoth hands, which was a brand new feeling that I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about…kind of sums up the whole experience really. However, all this paled in comparison to the fact that I still couldn't feel oxygen entering my windpipe.

I was starting to freak out some, despite the onset of apathy my death had instilled in me. I mean I thought I was entitled to being somewhat afraid, what with my inability to see or breath.

Of course, my vision had been crap in my past life, I'd worn glasses since I was twelve…too much computer games and porn, I guess.

However, that was nothing compared to the blurry mess that was my current ocular state. I was able to see outlines of things that were fucking _giant -_ that one scared the shit out of me - with a vague understanding of colors. To top it off, I was starting to see _spots_ because of my persistent problem with airflow.

Finally, something happened with my face and I could feel sweet air entering my lungs, praise every god that there ever is or was!

Now, I could fully concentrate on the fact that I was hearing…speech?

I think it was speech, but for all I could understand of the words, the people might as well have been speaking Ebonics. The words were jumbles of strangely stressed vowels and clipped sentences that sounded oddly familiar but definitely incomprehensible all at the same time.

I was having a hard time caring at that moment though. I could breathe and I basked in that personal victory. Then I realized that my hands and feet had shrunk.

I only realized it because one of the gargantuan hands had started playing with my tiny fingers and toes, requiring me to hold in the instinctual laughter, which I barely did by focusing on my overwhelming confusion and growing distress.

It was then I noticed my whole body was that size, not just my hands and feet. The 'giants' around me were actually regular-sized human beings.

I was a baby…what? The idea was so ludicrous and yet it made sense when I compared the distinctly large, fuzzy objects around the room to myself.

I'll admit I felt a little bit of hysteria bubbling up and that, combined with those traitorous hands tickling my tiny extremities, was what finally made me burst into high-pitched giggles. As I did, I heard multiple people around me begin what was undoubtedly the sound of cooing and awwing, indistinguishable no matter what language it's made in.

These various voices suddenly filled within me an insatiable curiosity about where I'd been 'reborn' so, while still giggling hysterically I might add, I tried to twist my little neck and swivel my untrained eyes to 'see' them.

I saw several shades of green, brown, and black all laid over different hues of skin and all hovering over me speaking in hushed tones. Now and again one of them would tickle or pat me.

I wanted to swat those hands away so badly, as I thought I might end up making my first excretion in my new body if they continued.

The sudden placement of a wrinkled hand on my head and an old voice that filled me with warmth, like a hot fresh-brewed pot of coffee speaking, stopped me.

Well, that and I had no real control over my mushy body at this point, the feeling much like how I imagined getting hit with a stun gun would feel like. I had that body-part-falling-asleep feeling of pins and needles all over my body and was incredibly hot.

Seriously, I could almost _feel_ my body temperature like it was a tangible thing and my insides felt like the interior of a hot air balloon.

Back to the hand on my head, my underdeveloped sense of smell did nothing to dull the acrid scent of the individual that leaned over to say something to me. It might've been a greeting, it might've been a blessing or a curse, I don't know what it was.

All I knew was that this particular individual smelled funny and was an interesting shade of white and red. They were also probably old, seeing as their hands were somewhat worn and crooked with what I figured was some form of arthritis.

I enjoyed the sound of his voice, though. I likened hearing it to drinking some cocoa after a long day playing in the snow. I just filled me with a sense of safety and comfort that was foreign to me.

It wasn't long after that instance that I realized why that was.

I was taken home from the hospital soon after that, to find that 'home' was a place filled with more than just my immediate family, but _all_ of my family members pretty much.

It seemed like such a huge place to me, but with all the people that lived there it was almost always full. They were really kind to me, too. I don't know if it was just because I was a baby or whatnot, but they were always speaking fondly amongst each other whenever I was around.

I didn't know it at the time, but the Third Shinobi World War had just ended recently and everyone was tentatively acclimating to the hopeful lure of 'peace'. There was a much greater air of relief and contentment than there would've been had I been born a few years prior.

This meant I was living pretty large with all the spoiling I received from my relatives and my parents.

Oh, right, I should probably mention my parents or 'parental units 2.0' as I liked to think of them.

Can you blame me if I _didn't_ think it was weird having another mom and dad? I mean, I was pretty distant with my family in my previous life, my parents included. I know that that might seem horrible, but I was just drowning myself in my own issues at the time and didn't really interact with anyone, family or not.

My new parent's were pretty cool though, if I had to say so.

I got the feeling my dad might've been one of those overexcited first time parents. He was always active with me, taking me places that I couldn't even really see well and showing me off to people I couldn't for the life of me understand. I appreciated it though, as I was avidly curious about where and when I was.

I only say 'when' because I noticed that there wasn't a lot of modern technology around the 'home' or even the 'town' really. There were no computers, no cars, and no phones even, yet there were televisions, refrigerators, and microwaves. It was almost like some technologies had been omitted from the world entirely, while others had survived but in a subdued capacity, and that little irregularity threw me for a hell of a loop.

There were some other things too that I noticed as I became more aware of my surroundings that made me wary, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Talking about my mom, she was honestly one of the kindest and gentlest individuals I'd ever met. In stark contrast to my dad's playfulness and excitability with me, my mother was where I could relax and learn. She had this desk she would sit at and hold me in her arms while reading to me from some scroll. She always spoke to _me_ was what really was the thing I liked.

I loved my dad, but I wasn't going to get by through life speaking baby.

It was also the way that my mother spoke to me with such loving care and gentleness…I got a little choked sometimes whenever she did it. It was just so easy to see how much she loved me.

However, there were things that my parents did that I, even as a baby, didn't understand how they were possible.

Like how my father sometimes disappeared out of sight without actually moving or like how my mother would place my toys on a scroll and they'd vanish in a puff of smoke. These things were oddly familiar and foreboding at the same time, as I was pretty sure that my parents weren't magicians of some sort.

I was pretty sure my mother might've been an artist actually, what with all the drawing and writing she did. I had no clue what my dad did, but he was usually in a uniform that was a shade of green with sections of blue and would be gone for long periods of time, so I knew he had some kind of job.

My senses steadily got better over the course of a year, my babbling a bit more coherent, no actual words yet, but I was starting to be able to understand what was being said around me. I have no clue how that works, but words and phrases started to make sense as I heard them more. I'm going to credit my saint of a mother being patient with me while reading whenever I was being fussy or trying to go to sleep.

I didn't cry a whole lot, now that I think about it, which probably made me seem like a strange baby.

I was hot a lot of the time and still had that feeling like I had a blown up balloon in my chest, but other than that I was fine. I could've had better control of my bowels, of course. That was somewhat annoying and I _had_ to cry if I wanted that taken care of.

But, other than that, I was just constantly trying to see, hear, feel, etc. better. My constant need for stimuli made my parents laugh so I wasn't particularly discouraged in that route.

On a side note, my review course on baby crawling was freaking sweet.

My first birthday crept up on me, to be honest.

It's not like I could really keep track of days that well, what with my attention constantly being on other things. It was quite the party though I have to say. There were probably a few hundred people there…at least from my baby POV that's what it felt like.

I blew a raspberry on my cake, opened some presents, and the whole nine, it was a good time. I remember my mother and father passing me around amongst relatives and friends like I was a hot potato.

In particular, I recall this lady with long, red hair holding me and making faces that I copied pretty well if I do say so myself. There was also this guy with really bright, shiny hair that was like looking into the sun. I won't lie I was entranced somewhat by it, so I was pretty happy when he let my grabbing fists get a feel of his locks…I might've giggled, what if I did huh?

However, one night a few weeks after that day I did wake up solely to cry, seemingly without prompting.

I could just feel _something_ , an aura of maliciousness and anger had fallen over me, awakening a primal feeling of fear within.

I wanted my mother, I wanted my father, and I wanted to run… and yet still some small part of me wanted to _see_ what could possibly be the source of this terrible atmosphere. I cursed my overwhelming curiosity for causing that dilemma in my mind, but my thoughts were soon broken up by the fact that my cries weren't producing a response from the household.

I knew for a fact that my parents would never leave me to cry my lungs out for this long, a habit brought about by the rarity of me crying. This point, along with the fact that there was a whole house full of people that were related to me that weren't responding as well, gave me a chill that brought my cries to a halt.

My fear almost doubled and my blood seemed to freeze in my veins like ice.

The fear I felt now was no longer the hot, rash terror that had been evoked from me by the oppressive hatred that tainted the air. No my concern was now for my family members and my parents who I couldn't place the location of during this event.

But, what could I do, I couldn't stand for more than a few seconds without falling over, much less try to crawl out of my crib. So I just lay there, helplessly unable to do anything, frustrated at my own impotency.

I felt the ground shake several times, knocking things over in my room. I saw lights flash sporadically across the pane of my window. I heard intermittent shouting mixed in with a terrifying roar that made the bars of my crib quiver. I could taste the air itself, suddenly charged with more energy than I'd ever noticed before. I smelled the burning fumes of fire smoke and a sickly sweetness the source of which I chose not to explore thinking further about.

I was madness out there, I could tell. But I still would've rather been out there, if that was where my parents were, than be stuck here to face my fear alone.

I thought long and hard during the few hours I had by myself during the chaos going on outside.

It was at that moment, I remembered how I came into this world and how I'd never resolved how I would've lived my life differently as opposed to my past one.

I remembered an obese, unconfident, and depressed human being that allowed his own insecurities to walk all over his self-esteem until they eventually killed him.

I remembered how hopeful and active that person had been before he grew up, how he'd always wanted to go places, experience things, and have fun.

I remembered how he never went anywhere, how he didn't allow himself to leave his 'comfort zone', and how he never got to achieve any of his childhood dreams.

I felt the balloon in my chest expand a little, almost simultaneously my resolve hardened.

I allowed myself to cry once more that night, just once.

After that, I didn't cry for six years, not even for little things like filling my diaper, being hungry, or getting frustrated. No, the last time I cried until just before my seventh birthday, was when my parents finally came home with both of them wearing dad's work attire.

That's when I cried, not only out of relief and in happiness at their safety, but also in resignation to my fate because I could finally recognize the leaf insignia displayed on both their headbands and the uniform of a Jōnin ninja.

I was in Konohagakure no Sato, The Village Hidden in the Leaves.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I really got a well of inspiration for this one and it just won't stop. Sorry for those who were hoping for a RWTP update, I promise as soon I finish riding whatever high this is I will turn my attention back to it.**

 **For now, enjoy and tell me what you think, as always. With regards, Roarend Darkhowl. Also, I do not own Naruto.**

The Prodigal Sun

Chapter 1: Monkey meets Fox

Alright, let's recap for a second, just to put everything into perspective.

I'm a twenty-seven-year-old man in the body of a one-year-old baby boy in the Naruto-verse's Leaf Village with Leaf Village ninjas for parents and we just survived what I was pretty sure was the Kyubi's attack on the village.

Well, welcome to the world Naruto, I guess. Sorry for the intrusion, I guess.

As bad as this is going to sound and as much as it hurts to acknowledge, I actually have to give the Kyubi a bit of thank you.

I mean, I'm not good friends with the guy and probably never will be, no matter whose universe I was in the guy probably just got done killing a good third or fourth of my family, dammit! People I'd grown to care for because they took care of me and welcomed me as one of their own, even if I didn't feel I belonged.

However, to give credit where it's due, the furball's immense freak out in the village _did_ lead to the subsequent focus of my senses.

Before, my vision was steadily improving from the initial crappy, blurry mess it had been, which reminded me of how I'd been able to see without my glasses before in my life. Now not only was I now able to see things with a good deal more clarity than before, but I could now understand the language, which I was thankful for.

If I had to listen to a conversation without understanding the content for a single second longer, I would've quickly turned into a terribly bratty baby.

To use an analogy, before I was like a microwave tray that wasn't set correctly. I still held the things you needed to warm up, but I didn't spin and was constantly rattling.

Now, armed with my finally defogged senses, I was able to figure out and pick up precisely where I was rather quickly.

The first of those things was my parent's names that I could now understand now. Before where I thought of them solely as 'Mom and Dad', now I could more historically categorize them as 'Kyako and Hasuna'…Sarutobi.

Okay, I'm a member of the monkey clan. I'm actually cool with that, as we're one of the possibly more normal clans of Konoha.

Think about it for a second, just for comparisons sake let's say I was born into a different clan.

Yamanaka? I have no experience with healthy minds, why would I want to delve into one that might be more fucked up than my own.

Uchiha? Fate would be an absolute asshole for wishing that on me.

Aburame? Yeah, the idea of being a human hive and bearing with bedbugs for my entire life was strangely not appealing, for some reason.

Hyūga? I will go out on a limb and say that that might've been cool but terrible all at once, as I wouldn't have minded the Byakugan but I would've probably become an even bigger pain in the ass then I had been in my previous life.

Inuzuka? I have no want to smell other people's funk, no matter how cool it would've been to have a doggy companion.

I would've probably been okay if I had been born a Nara or an Akimichi, though.

I mean I was naturally lazy in my past life, so that part wouldn't have to be faked, and I had been told I was smart enough to make other people feel stupid just by talking, so there's that.

I was also used to dealing with carrying weight around with me my entire life and getting a license to eat all the time seemed pretty cushy to me, especially since I'd be able to go Apache Chief on someone's ass if they called me names.

But I'm digressing. The Sarutobi clan was perfectly fine for me. No crazy homicidal tendencies— out of work of course—, no mind-fuckery, no complicated pinkeye, and if Asuma was anything to go by, a pretty laidback outlook with plenty of potential for awesome was in my future.

I was perfectly content with that.

So, of course, almost like fate was picking up on my decreasing panic levels, I was tossed a curveball immediately.

My parents and I, after a tearful reunion where my mother and I cried a bunch while dad sniffled something fierce during a relief-induced group hug, moved about the 'house', which I now knew was the Sarutobi clan compound, checking on relatives.

Well, my parents did a great degree more of that than I did, as I was still marveling at my newfound understanding of the language. It was during the third group hug with family members, that we were interrupted.

"Hasuna-san. Kyako-san." A member of ANBU had just shown up from out of freaking nowhere, causing me to already clamp down on my cry reflex that wanted to kick in at the shock of fear his sudden arrival had induced in me.

I could tell it was going to be hard to 'man up' as a one-year-old already.

Thankfully, my dad took care of everything and, by the time that my mini panic episode was over, we were moving to the exit of the compound, moving opposite of some relatives I was happy to see were alive.

Just to highlight how unbelievable awesome my mom is for a second, she had an encouraging word for every single Sarutobi we passed that was injured or in mourning, all while carrying me in the crook of her arm.

I don't know how many times I was crushed by hugs between her and other people during that period, but I wasn't complaining I was such in awe of her.

Case in point, just as we were leaving the compound, a clan member in his forties with gray already pecking away at his dark, close-cropped hair is leaning against the gates, white-faced and hollow looking.

Most people would pass him by while giving him a compassionate if not pitiful look with a side of understanding, not my mother.

She immediately rushed over to him and pulled him into an embrace, which I studiously wriggled a bit out of the way of so I wasn't squished. She spent a good few minutes with him, whispering hopeful words and offers of aid should he ever need it while the man took the time to break down on her shoulder.

Thank God, or…Kami, I guess, that mom turned out to be a kunoichi otherwise the weight of this grown man might've flattened her...and subsequently me.

After reconnecting with my dad, who was giving mom one of his gentle smiles, and the ANBU, who I couldn't tell how they felt because ANBU, we left the compound.

Now, this struck me as something to mention, as I didn't know it about Konoha previously.

Clan compounds were actually located between the village walls and the village interior where most of the entirety of civilian homes, businesses, and village infrastructure was located. They acted kind of like a barrier between the outside world and the populace that ninja are sworn to protect.

Our clan compound, from what I could see anyway, was one of the compounds in a forested section of the village that stood between the walls of the village and the village itself. There was a great stone entrance with a gate and monkey carvings, which we exited from after ninja running down the path out of our compound, with the Sarutobi clan symbol depicted above it.

Now, we were moving a bit fast, but I saw one other stone entrance further to my mom's left that was actually a part of enclosed walls and had a symbol etched not only above the gate but also at intervals along the walls.

It was the symbol of a circle with three wavy diagonal lines through it, with those lines being connected by straight vertical ones. I had no idea what symbol that was or which clan it was for, but the gate seemed rather plain looking in comparison to ours.

Now, as a side note, being a baby that is being held while actually being able to see that we're roof hopping, was _fucking terrifying_.

Sure, later on I would come to appreciate the feeling of the air gently parting before us and the steady rhythm of hopping from one roof to the other, but at that moment, I had to close my eyes to keep from crying.

In case you were wondering, yes the instinctive crying thing was really starting to wear on me.

After what seemed like an eternity of hopping, mixed with the smell of burnt debris and the cries of the wounded, we finally made it to our destination.

That was a new one for me as well. What with no exposure to any of the hells of war and misery beyond what I saw on TV or video games, I was ill prepared for the atrocities brought by battle. I was again glad I'd not opened my eyes, otherwise I'm not sure I could've handled the sight of it all.

The building that we reached was surprisingly intact, which was good as it seemed to be somewhat of an administrative hub. People were coming out and going in at a hectic pace, all of them with frantic looks on their faces, everyone was yelling out orders or reports.

I was surprisingly chill, just trying to take in everything at once: the faces, the words, what was being said.

I'd had a pretty good head for administration and clerical work in the past, as it was one of the only jobs where you just had to handle and input information. Bonuses included not much movement, a nice desk to sit at, and an awesome spinning chair that I suddenly missed.

Anyways, we entered the building after moving carefully through the masses, with my parents exchanging a word or two whenever they saw people they knew.

It was at this moment that I realized I had no idea _why_ we were here. I must've missed the information whilst trying not to have a heart attack…freaking ANBU.

Still, everyone seemed to know where they were going, ascending several sets of stairs that made me happy I was being carried.

After passing a waiting room that seemed to have been heavily populated in the last half hour or so, what with all of the cigarette butts and dirty footprints staining the carpet, we were waved on by a rather haggard-looking secretary who was writing almost frantically, to finally stand before a door that I assumed was where we were going.

I had a bad feeling about this door, like I was going to find a particularly sigh inducing dilemma behind it that was going to make my budding life…well, Shikamaru Nara couldn't put it better.

I had one warning before the fact and it almost caused me to choke on my own spit. The ANBU with us seemed to move his hands innocuously, which I thought meant there were other people around I couldn't see, ANBU bullshit striking again. Then he stood aside and motioned for us to go in. His parting words however were the kicker: "Go on in, your father is able to see you now."

…I'm sorry?

I froze for a good second and before I could do anything, which probably would've been along the lines of mentally exploding into curses of denial, we entered the room.

Yes, it was the Hokage's office, right down to the long row of obnoxious windows that any assassin worth their salt could see their target through and the desk that separated the head honcho himself from his loyal subjects.

Yeah…it was Hiruzen Sarutobi… my grandpa…fuck my life.

Don't get me wrong, I thought the Third was cool and everything. You definitely had to be a badass to earn the moniker of 'God of Shinobi'. I mean this is the guy who mastered over a thousand different jutsu and all five elemental manipulations _without_ a cheating eyeball, coughKakashicoughcough.

However, this infamy also meant that, as his immediate family, my parents and I were prime targets for the shinobi world. Kidnapping, assassination, you name it and we were possible candidates for it.

If babies could sigh, I did a fair approximation of it. It may have sounded like a whimper, but I assure it wasn't.

The Professor himself sat at the desk rubbing his temples, decked out in the red and white clothing of a newly reinstated Hokage. A little bit of me felt bad for him at that moment, having to come out of retirement to take up a position you were certainly hoping you'd seen the last of.

However, most of my faculties were still too busy flipping out over the fact that I was THE THIRD'S GRANDSON…wait…was I Konohamaru?

Before I could begin working out _that_ life-changing thought process, another person in the room made themselves known.

My heart jumped for a second, latching onto the fact that maybe this was my grandfather and I wasn't the grandson of a Hokage, possibly saving myself from all the trouble that would bring me. However, I was doomed for disappointment when a familiar figure with a toothpick in his mouth got off the couch against the wall and approached us.

My uncle Asuma seemed about seven or eight years younger than my dad, his Chunin uniform looking almost uncomfortably new on him.

His hair was longer and shaggier in his apparent youth. He also hadn't yet acquired his trench knives, if their absence on his person was any indication.

He seemed about as weary as everybody else in that room though, now that I took a good look at everybody. Not that I blame any of them, trying to fight off a giant entity that probably doesn't even acknowledge your best shots and protect your home from it will probably do that to you.

Oh crap, incoming…next thing I know I'm part of a group hug with my immediate family, being squeezed between my mom and my grandfather, who'd snuck up on us when I was scoping out my cool, new uncle.

I caught a whiff of a familiar acrid scent from my gramps, and then he looked at us, me specifically, and placed a hand on my head.

I had a feeling of déjà vu when he started speaking in such a way that I was immediately at ease.

"Ah, thank Kami, I wasn't sure if he'd end up like all the other cases or not." He seemed especially relieved to see me, though I'm not sure why as the clan compound wasn't anywhere near the fighting.

My mother was concerned too, probably for the same reason. "What do you mean? What other cases?" She clutched me a little tighter to her, as if to reassure herself that I wasn't going anywhere.

I didn't mind, as I was morbidly curious and appreciated the comfort the gesture imparted.

The old man sighed, taking his hat off and placing it on his desk, rubbing once more at his temples. Just looking at his exhaustion was making me tired, well that and being woken up in the middle of the night by a giant, raging chakra monster didn't help.

"The Kyubi's attack has taken a toll on everyone. Even our youngest were not immune to its presence in our village. We've had reports of children and babies all over Konoha of ages ranging from newborns to two-year-olds not waking up from their sleep. Just…" He stumbled with his words for a second, as if the concept took some of the heart out of him. "…just giving up and passing on."

Oh wow…that was something I had no trouble believing, not with how I was feeling earlier.

If I hadn't been mentally older than I was, my one-year-old mind probably wouldn't have been able to process the terror I was feeling. My little heart would've given out in an instant. At least, that was the only thing I could think of that set me aside from the others who'd been unable to cope.

I realized that everyone had gone silent and was now looking at me strangely. I wasn't cool with that, no matter how much I appreciated attention, I didn't like all kinds of it.

Thankfully, my dad, being as awesome as he is, saved me from further scrutiny. "Well, I guess our boy's just got a head start when it comes to his Will of Fire, not giving up like that." Thanks dad, I owe you one.

His inclusion of my mom made her hug me a bit and look at me tenderly, while my dad fondled my head.

It was painful some times, the amount of love I felt from them. I often wondered if this was how my parents were with me and I just didn't notice, or worse didn't appreciate it. There were so many mistakes I made in my past life, but I resolved to make less of them in this one.

"Kid's certainly got our stubbornness down pat, I guess."

Even the compliment from Asuma, as backhanded as it was, made me feel like hugging the guy, with the emotional state I was in.

I tried to do it too, my little hands reaching out towards him in grabbing motions.

Thankfully my mom understood, otherwise I'd have never made it. She unceremoniously dumped me into Asuma's arms, which came around instinctively to hold me up. He gave her a mild glare, which she surreptitiously ignored by moving forward to hug the Hokage comfortingly, something that I was glad for, as he looked like he probably needed it.

This left me to start my exploration of my uncle's face with my pudgy little hands, like a boss. He seemed a little peeved about it, to be honest.

I didn't really care though, so I began my trek up Mt. Asuma using his vest's rigid pouches as feet and hand holds until I was eye-level with him. He looked at me a little askance, like he was wondering what I was doing or how I got the climbing thing down, so I couldn't imagine how his expression changed after I put my arms around his neck.

The mental picture alone made me gurgle happily and pop drool bubbles down the back of his vest.

I heard some laughter behind me, so I knew I couldn't be too far off my guess. However, when he handed me off to my dad, I found that Asuma was looking at me warmly and even ruffled my hair a little bit. I smiled back at him, best I could, happy to form some kind of bond with my casually chill uncle.

However, I was quickly drawn back into the conversation that my mother and grandfather were having. They'd relocated to a crib tucked in a corner that I hadn't seen…wait, crib?

I had to overhear something about 'sealing process' and 'no parents' before I got a clue.

I tugged at my dad's collar relentlessly, pointing as best I could, until he got the message. He walked us over, looking about as curious as I felt, before stopping next to my mother.

I looked down and got an eyeful of my savior…no, of _this world's_ savior.

Naruto Uzumaki was a small thing, like a loaf of bread with blond hair and whisker marks. He was sleeping a bit restlessly, maybe having a nightmare or something, poor kid. I know I'd probably have nightmares too if the first thing I experienced in life was someone trying to kill me.

Now at least then, I knew that I couldn't be Konohamaru, as I was older than Naruto by a year and a bit. I should've really figured that out when the Kyubi attacked, but a lot had happened and I was still trying to catch up.

His eyes snapped open all of a sudden darting around like he was…he was scared. He was a tiny baby, not even a few hours old probably, and he was scared for his life just like I had been when I was semi-blind and couldn't breathe.

I felt something then, at that moment.

Something angry and protective came over me, something that didn't like the terror that lay in those sky-blue eyes. I'd never had a younger sibling in my past life, but I'd had younger cousins that made me feel like this.

He started crying.

I couldn't blame him, but it was this sight that triggered something in me that I couldn't explain.

I began furiously struggling against my dad's grip, reaching out towards the crib, trying to grab a hold of anything that I could. He tried several times to re-adjust his hands on me, but I was squirming and sniffling, I wasn't going to cry but I wanted down, dammit!

I could see the Hokage was looking at this exchange with a serious expression on his face all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye.

In the end, it was my mother who once again came to my rescue, taking me gently from my father.

I struggled against her too at first, thinking she was just going to hold onto me and keep me away, but I stopped once she started placing me inside the crib. I plopped down onto the firm cushioning of it and started scrambling over towards Naruto, putting my epic crawling skills at work.

I soon found myself eye to eye with a suddenly quiet Naruto, my arrival startling him into silence.

He had some seriously blue eyes.

No joke, it was like the color blue was made for them alone, but that's neither here nor there.

I was happy that he'd stopped crying, but he still had that scared back-to-a-corner fear in his eyes. It was easy to place, as I'd probably had the same look in mine a few hours back. I hated seeing it there for some reason, so I did what I could, which wasn't much.

I started out basic, just to test the waters and see if he was the kind of baby that my little cousin had been.

I booped his nose with my index finger and made a face at him.

There was a rather pregnant silence that followed, but I'm sure my dad was trying not to laugh his ass off. That was the same kind of thing that he did to me to get my attention.

Now, when Naruto gurgled in delight, I felt the tension leave my body and I lifted the little guy as best I could into my lap.

However, I wasn't really coordinated enough to do any of that, so we kind of ended up with Naruto lying against my side. I began petting his head though, my fingers dragging gently through his sunny locks, his blue eyes blinking happily up at me.

I remembered how safe and comfortable my grandfather's voice made me feel when I first entered this world. I hoped that this felt at least something like that, anything like that instance for Naruto. I wanted to reassure him that he wasn't already alone, that he wasn't already by himself.

"Goodnight."

I heard my mother gasp and my dad immediately chuckled to himself when she threw herself into his arms.

My voice was stilted and sloppy, the random amount of teeth I had in my mouth feeling strange on my tongue, but I did it. I spoke my first word driven by a need to comfort another, a need to comfort Naruto.

Apparently, I understood the language enough to recognize the phrase my mother and father always said to me before leaving me to sleep.

How he did it didn't matter to me, but the moment when Naruto closed his eyes to sleep once again, I knew I wanted to help him. To do that I needed to get stronger and this was when I first acknowledged the usefulness of being the grandson of a Hokage.

Sure, I probably needed to do that for my own sake too, something that was undoubtedly best for me.

But that wasn't the reason that sparked it. No, I just…didn't want someone who would have to go through so much, do so by himself.

I pushed aside the old me who couldn't – or rather wouldn't – lift a hand for anyone but himself, replacing him with a picture of me the way I always wanted to be…with a little golden ball of light at my side.

The same night that Naruto Uzumaki was born, was the same night he gained a brother.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Back once again…someone help me, I don't think I can stop. This is like the second upload in the same amount of days, what is going on with me? Well, whatever it is, I can think more on it after I pass out for a bit. As usual, leave some love or hate and tell me what you think, Darkhowl out. Also, I don't own Naruto.

The Prodigal Sun

Chapter 2: Monkey See

Well, things certainly picked up after I met Naruto for the first time let me tell you.

No literally, let me tell you about it.

My parents were giving me lots of attention after that, which I was cool with because I needed it if I wanted to start getting anywhere. They were both shinobi, even if mom was a former one, so I needed to start abusing the heck out of that.

First things first, I put my mind to work as, even though it was a different life, I still prized it as a person's most important tool. If I didn't know something, whether it was how, when, or even why, I was going to try and rectify that so I didn't hesitate when it mattered. My mom's office was a great place to start, since there were books in a bookcase at my height level.

Not a few days after my first word, I was dragging books off the shelves to get my mother to read them to me. I needed to learn how to read, fast. Information was power and the world offered a lot more to you when you were already prepared for it. It also allowed me a reason to spend more time with my mom, who was delighted to see me taking an interest in learning.

I learned everything that she would read me, not just the words but the context. I had apparently retained my love for history and, combined with my mother's ability to spin a good story out of any boring historical text, I subsequently became rather well acquainted with my new playground's background.

Of course, I was rather disappointed that the world's history didn't go back to far, what with many old texts not surviving the ravage of time, shinobi clans, and national wars.

My spirits were reinvigorated however by the discovery of another passion of mine – philosophy. Or the art of arguing your own point, as my dad came to call it.

This place had a whole slew of new philosophers and creeds for me to take in. Locke and Voltaire could move on over, Sishu and Daitoko had some interesting things to say about the ninja world's state of affairs.

Thanks to my mother I was quickly supplied me with a knowledge and vocabulary base to work from at an early age, with all of her patience and deliberation put to work while teaching me. It also came in handy once my natural curiosity piqued one day when I got a look at what she was drawing at her desk.

It turns out that my mother wasn't actually an artist, but had taken up a job at the Konoha Library as a cartographer, rewriting old maps that were starting to decay and writing up new ones whenever Konoha nin passed through an area that was previously unexplored.

She had just started one of the latter: a map of the Land of Snow based off the accounts of our village's initial emissary and the much-censored report of a patrol of ANBU who were there for undisclosed reasons.

I was rather fascinated, as the series didn't really do these various places justice, and the books that my mom had on them weren't far behind.

I had always been able to imagine pretty accurately how a place looked in my mind from only a few paragraphs or so of description, but when the word 'unexplored' found its way across my eyes I was quickly enthralled with the fact that this world didn't have a map, that there were no atlas' here.

I was blindsided by the fact that, while I hadn't experienced a lot of things in my past life, this was a new place with even more new things I could do in it and _would_ do in it.

All of the sudden the world opened up to me in a way I wasn't expecting.

I read about things and places and the determination to see and do was still there like it had always been, but now I _wanted_ to acted on those feelings.

Before, I would read about a place I'd be interested in and want to visit, but not have any real motivation to do so. Before, I would read about something interesting or something would catch my eye and I would want to do it, but the fear of doing it wrong and being shamed for it kept me from doing so.

Now, I _wanted_ to do things and go places without care of how hard it took to get there or how hard it was to get right.

I had made the resolution to _do_ before in my past life and I had done the same with no resulting motivation increase or long-lasting effects.

But, the thought of experiencing things I hadn't along with things that weren't possible where I'd originally lived, suddenly ignited something within my mind. I was ravenous for…adventure, I guess is the right word.

I'd also seemingly rediscovered something that had deserted me after my childhood's end…more on that in a minute.

I turned to my father for activity unsurprisingly, what with his job description still being a shinobi and all.

I wasn't quite ready for learning anything like how to fight, but he did play with me a lot whenever I asked him to. I asked him because a lot of the games that they played here were either of the physical sorts, like some demented version of tackle-tag, or things involving hand-eye coordination, like making shapes with a spool of string.

However, it was during all these things and reading about all these places that I rediscovered the same vigor that I'd had in my youth.

I found myself never able to sit in anyone place for very long, and always wanting to be mobile. I must've been to every corner of the compound twice, every place in the forest around it at least once, and most of the time with a book in hand or just playing. My imagination was coming into play, except instead of fighting dragons and saving princesses, I was battling hordes of ninja and…well the second part hadn't changed.

I didn't put much thought to the future, to be honest. I knew what was there for the most part and, after learning how to write, kept a journal to track major events in. Of course, I knew that doing that could get me in trouble were anyone to read it, so I encoded it as only I could've.

Here's a hint: The Suna-Sound invasion of the Leaf became D-day and the Chunin Exams became The Hunger Games.

I think anyone that wasn't me would've had a hard time understanding the contents of my journal.

In addition to this, I also quickly took to doing a good deal of the hand-eye coordination stuff in addition to running myself ragged whenever I wasn't with my mom or messing with my chakra.

Oh yeah, speaking of my chakra, _that_ is what the hot, balloon-like sensation in my chest had been.

I say 'had been', because the first time I tried sticking my hand to something with it, I nearly blew the leg of the table apart, damn thing almost toppled over on top of me.

On the plus side, the balloon feeling wasn't as discomforting and I just felt warmth spreading throughout my body all tingly-like. My parents took me to the doctor after that, thinking something might have been wrong with me…because what child blows up a table leg on purpose…whoops.

The diagnosis was thus: I had large, dense chakra reserves for a child my age, which was actually a common occurrence amongst some Sarutobi, like grandpa for example. It wasn't exactly a bloodline, just a genetic predisposition towards chakra usage as far as I could tell.

This also affected how my reserves grew with me. They'd naturally plateau in growth by the time I was twenty, even though there were ways to increase them through other means.

Also since I'd actually been born with a lot of 'heavy' chakra to work with, it was causing me discomfort by not doing anything with it. It was rather like having to use the bathroom and holding it, it just didn't feel right.

My parents were advised to make sure that I was active every day after that incident and they also might want to start on control exercises early for me if I planned on becoming a ninja.

Well, that's a given, I mean who would want to be reborn into the Naruto-verse to become a baker, am I right?

So, since my father made a habit of going around the village to hang out with friends of his, he wasn't shy about dragging me and my uncle along with him. Later on he made me walk along while trying to stick a leaf to my forehead, saying it'd be even harder for me since I was preoccupied while doing it.

It was a _pain in the ass_ and made me frustrated at more than one point.

Now, I was used to the going out thing of course, as he'd done it before without prompting, but now I wanted actually to _meet_ the people he hung out with.

So not one day after I'd finally gotten the pesky act of walking without falling on my face down, he took me out with him to get together with some of his friends who were in the village and not on missions for a group lunch.

I was honestly surprised when we dropped down by an entrance to a ramen joint that I was intimately familiar with.

When we entered the domain of Ichiraku Ramen, it was to find another shocker, well for me anyways.

Now I'd never made a big deal out of it, but my dad was actually a little bit younger than I was when I died…which really put another dent in how my old life went but who's counting?

Anyways, I say that to explain the fact that Genma Shiranui, Raido Namiashi, and Ebisu are sitting at the counter, seemingly waiting for our arrival. They also welcomed my uncle rather easily, as apparently he and Raido were old Genin teammates while Genma and Ebisu were opponents of his during _their_ Chunin Exam.

I wasn't quite sure how my dad knew them, but I didn't get a chance to ask before they noticed me.

"Hey, look it's little Saru."

"Oh, yeah. Can't he talk now, Hasuna?"

"Is that right?"

"Go ahead, Haruo. They won't bite."

Of course, immediately after my dad says that I freeze up.

However, I like to think I recovered admirably and simultaneously got back at him by saying that mom must be the ones giving him those bite marks then. The innocent way with which I said it, as only a two-year-old can, made my dad turn red and fall off his stool while his buddies proceeded to crack up around him. My not so innocent follow up of "Got you, dad!" made my dad commence with the noogie treatment to my head, which only increased his mate's laughter.

All in all, it was sign of how the whole meeting and subsequent meetings would go.

Overall, they were a pretty cool bunch of dudes who'd bonded during and after their first Chunin exams. They'd decided to hang together since then and my dad, who was rather enthusiastic to show me off before, now wanted me actively to participate since I was able to speak to a certain degree.

I got on alright with Genma and Raido almost immediately.

This was mainly because Genma was a lot like my uncle Asuma, as they were both laidback to the point of almost falling asleep with their senbon/toothpick still in their mouths. Raido, on the other hand was pretty serious about his work, but was still amicable enough to befriend once you got to know him a bit. He also knew a lot of dirty jokes that I pretended not to get, but was cackling about the cleverness of on the inside.

Ebisu on the other hand, I couldn't stand.

He was stuck up and pompous, having an opinion about almost everything that he _thought_ he was right about. If there was such a thing as a ninja know-it-all, that was Ebisu. He was always able to quote ninja code and history, things that I would've been interested in learning from him if he wasn't such a tool-bag about it.

Needless to say, I preferred my parents when it came to teaching me things.

And I was growing quickly both under their tutelage and my own self-practice, always testing my limits and pushing the boundaries of what I could do.

I got hurt a lot, but…I learned to laugh it off from my dad, who was always telling me that 'you can laugh and move on after something or you can cry about it and not get anywhere'. I wanted to go so far and to so many places. I promised myself I'd never cry and get upset over anything if I could help it.

I'll admit that my dad was becoming sort of a role model along with my uncle Asuma.

Now, I was starting to have more energy than I knew what to do with. I mean I was used to lazing around a lot and not doing much of anything physical. But my body was craving movement and my mind was craving excitement. I blame my dad and my mom equally for this, with my dad's genetics making me hyperactive and my mom igniting a passion inside me to explore.

By the time I was four, I was roaming the forest around the compound on a daily basis and was always nagging my mom to go to the village proper. My uncle Asuma was a reluctant chaperone for many of my excursions, which didn't get very far before they were turned back home because he was so lazy.

Asuma was someone who I pestered constantly, mostly because he was around more often than my dad was and liked to play board games with me when he could. I quickly discovered that he liked playing shogi long before he played it with Shikamaru as the leader of Team Ten. He seemed to like playing with me, mostly because he thrashed me since I had a hard time sitting still long enough to play much less learn it.

I couldn't help it, I was getting bored of my routine at this point and wanted a bit more freedom or baring that, some instruction.

It wasn't until the week after my fifth birthday when I received some very special attention from my grandfather that finally started picking things up for me.

I was in the back of the compound, practicing my tree climbing, not the chakra kind, but the normal kind. I was surprisingly nimble and dexterous, which I took as an excess of monkey in my DNA. My cousins had been the same way.

At this point in time, I was starting to look a lot like dad and my uncle, with my olive skin and spiky black hair. I even had my dad's nose and smile to match. But my mother's eyes were what everyone said were my distinctive feature. They were hazel with a dark pupil surrounded by flecks of gold, almost like a firework.

I was just contemplating jumping from one branch to another and wondering if the fall from this height would break my leg or not, when I heard my grandfather call for me.

This made me suitably excited, as time with the Third was rare nowadays, what with him running the village and organizing the closing days of the reconstruction process. He'd made only a very brief showing at my birthday party and I was determined to thank him for his present. I scrambled down the tree as quickly as I could, finding hand and footholds with an ease born from all the climbing around I did in the forests around the compound.

Like I said, I was extremely bored most days and climbing around looking at stuff was fun in its own way, especially when I found a nice stable branch to recline on and read.

Those moments were precious to me, as I could just relax and let the world fall away for a little while, engrossing myself in a good book. Whether it was on another land, some kind of trade skill, or the ethics of an off-branch of Sishu, I read it.

My grandfather even supplied with some old books that they had had to replace in the Archives. They were facts about ninja and history of the shinobi world. I would re-read these more often than not as they told the story of the Naruto-verse that wasn't explained or was explained but in less detail.

My birthday present had been such a gift, the biography of my great-grandfather, Sasuke Sarutobi. Now that man was a boss of a ninja.

Indulge me for a moment and picture it: a man with the strength of the Simian summons of Mt. Hiei at his beck and call, a man who fought all of the original Kages at one point in his life, a man whose prowess over ninjutsu was so great he'd trained an affinity for all five of them.

That man was Sasuke Sarutobi, the man who became known as 'The Monkey King' when he led a troop of the strongest Apes he could summon against an army of foreign invaders from the Southern Continent and won.

He was a legend amongst shinobi, not only for his exploits but for his philosophy. He'd never been the first to raise a hand against another human being unless they provoked him.

Like at the battle of Kiriko Castle, where he'd single-handedly infiltrated and assassinated the entire garrison, a rouge ninja clan that had sacked a nearby village in this case, because they'd killed all the village elders and taken the rest prisoner before burning their home to the ground.

He was in many ways my idol and my ideal, a shinobi that was at peace with himself and his power, more intent on helping others and looking for solutions that profited everybody.

That's why he originally led his people to join Konohagakure in the first place, he agreed with the message the First preached and wanted to aid in the practice of reducing the world's bloodshed.

I'd been engrossed with his life story the last couple of days, reading and re-reading it to take in every detail.

It was with hope for another one of these inspiring titles that I ran to my grandpa, who was seated in a chair on the back patio, looking rather tired like he usually did after a day of paperwork.

"Jiji, you're home!" Just like that, he was tackle hugged by the very best.

However, don't let his looks fool you, as grandpa was built like a brick shithouse and just as solid. I probably ended up just making him uncomfortable for the second it took for him to turn the tackle into me sitting on his lap.

He did it so quickly I didn't even notice until he spoke.

"Ah, hello to you too, Haruo." He patted me on the head, maybe in an effort to calm me down somewhat, but I was too wound up to sit still for long. I made my usual trip up Mt. Hiruzen, ending up perched the shoulder of his chair and rocking my legs back and forth.

I waited for maybe a minute longer before I couldn't help myself.

"So, what brings you to compound? Did you bring me another book or… maybe the maids kicked you out of your crawl space again?" I snickered at him a bit when I said the last part.

Grandpa spent most nights in the condominium off of the Hokage's office, which had been made back when the Second was in charge and work came before family.

However, he'd always get kicked out for a night or two whenever his secretary would see the state of his dwelling and call a team of maids clean it up.

Apparently, work came before _cleanliness_ for a Hokage, as well.

Grandpa was a good sport about it though, something I always admired about him and dad: their ability to take things in stride and still be badass ninjas. It was a trait I aspired to emulate when I was older, what with taking things too personally working directly against my usual apathy towards other people.

Grandpa chuckled at me, lighting up his pipe and shaking his head. "No, no. I figured it'd be a good night to come home and see how you were doing along with the others, you've grown so much these last few years it's getting hard to recognize you every time I come home." He fiddled around with the stem of his pipe before placing it into the corner of his mouth.

I was a bit confused at this point. He definitely meant what he said about being missing seeing me, but he mentioned that all the time. He seemed a little nervous about something, to be honest. However, I lacked the decorum and savvy of my relatives to keep information about that to myself when it came to family.

"What are you so worried about, jiji? You seem kind of tense." He coughed on his next inhale and I patted him on the back helpfully with a smile, trying not to laugh at the poor guy.

I mean I was five, but I was operating with more than a full deck…in other words I was cheating.

I had an unfair amount of experience at non-verbal cues. I myself had had many of them in my past life that I habitually abused whenever I was uncomfortable so that my few friends I had knew it. His surprised look at me made my awkward self-awareness back then a bit worth it.

"Well, Haruo…I was sort of talking things over with your mother about how you've been getting on the last few months." Dad had been and was still on a mission in that time, so mom was running things at the homestead right now while grandpa worked.

I wasn't sure where he was going with this, but I was hoping it was a present.

"She and I have come to an agreement." He smoothed the front of his robes for good measure, which made roll my eyes. "Since Hasuna is going be on his mission for a longer period of time than we previously calculated, I will be handling your training, at least initially."

He was cut off from saying anymore, as I'd thrown myself on top of him and wrapped as much of my body around him as I could in an odd stranglehold of a hug.

My thanks really couldn't be expressed any less than that. I was starting to get antsy for something to do with all of my energy, hence all the running around and the tree climbing.

I was finally going to start my training…I had to admit to being a bit nervous, but mostly excited.

I had decided I wasn't going to be content with being a background character, dammit. Team Seven, Rookie Nine, Konoha Twelve. I wanted to get myself a place amongst that group and I was damn well going to deserve it.

I was a Grandson of the Third Hokage, a Great-Grandson of 'The Monkey King', and I was going to do whatever it took to experience as much of this world as I could, even if it meant working to surpass my predecessors.

I'd made a pledge that I would get stronger and always be there to support Naruto…oh, right. I blanked for a moment before the nausea started to set in.

I couldn't freaking believe it! I had made so much progress from how I used to be before and I still made the same mistake – I'd forgotten about the people I didn't _have_ to interact with everyday.

So obsessed with learning and getting to know my family and the rest of the world, I'd neglected the person near me who deserved attention more than anyone else.

Grandpa didn't miss my moment of intense mental self-berating and shifted me a little so I was looking into his concerned eyes. "What's wrong, Haruo?"

I didn't mean to make him worry, but I couldn't believe I'd done something so dense already. I'd not even start my ninja training and I'd mess up my plans. I finally sighed and looked back at him, shamefaced with the corners of my eyes burning.

"H-how's…Naruto been doing, jiji?" I hadn't even followed up after our first meeting, which is something I doubt he remembered seeing, as he wasn't even a day old at the time.

I was sniffling up a storm, so freaking appalled at falling back into my old habits.

This is how I'd lost all my old friends after high school, they tried reaching out to me to try and maintain communication, but I just curled further into my self-seclusion. Eventually, they just stopped contacting me altogether and moved on with their lives, probably forgetting all about me.

My only saving grace was that Naruto probably didn't know me at all, but that was an excuse and I hated my traitorous thoughts for producing it.

"Haruo?" I should probably thank my grandfather for intruding on my thoughts, as they were taking a dark turn that I would not be happy about after I came to my senses later.

"Naruto is just fine, why ask about him? What's wrong?" I'm guessing he'd caught my anguished look, oh well, too late to go back. He had that calculating grandpa look on his, which he'd adopt whenever I did or said something particularly profound.

I also knew that what he said was probably a load of crap, too.

I knew that Jiraiya didn't take him and that Kakashi didn't adopt him. Beyond that, the only people who would have him would be clan heads both power hungry or sympathetic. The civilian council had put paid to that happening, even if it was in an effort to isolate Naruto.

They'd said it would be seen as 'unfair to the balance of power between shinobi clans' and so he had most likely been sent to live in the orphanage and live miserably just like in canon.

That thought made me feel worse, if anything.

"Is he really okay, being by himself all the time and everything? I mean, I've at least got you and the rest of the family…" My grandfather was looking at me now with a mixture of concern and sadness. He looked away pensively, like I had personally made him question his judgment.

He knew what I said was true and he knew he couldn't do much about it. I felt bad for reminding him of how helpless he was in this situation, so I tried to banish his sorrow at my own expense.

"I mean…I've only got you all because mom won't let me out of the compound for more than an hour." I said this last bit with a good deal of chagrin…and I might've been pouting.

I was living in a village that is constantly being patrolled by ninja for crying out loud! I think it was pretty safe, especially since I was the son of the Third and everyone was going to be bending over backwards and crap for me anyways.

Ugh, I wasn't looking forward to that at all.

As I said before I liked attention as well as the next person but not all kinds of it. Now I could kind of understand why Konohamaru focused so hard on becoming Hokage and stepping out of grandpa's shadow, it was pretty massive and difficult to maneuver in what with all the people trying to stick their heads up his ass by proxy.

Grandpa chuckled at bit at me, before sighing and answering my original question.

"I don't know, Haruo. For now, I think it's the best I can do for him." He didn't look so aggrieved at this point, something that I was glad for. I hadn't meant to put him on the spot like this, almost as if I'd accused him of negligence when I knew he cared about Naruto just like me.

Naruto was family, there wasn't any two ways about it, and I resolved to make this the truth.

"That's okay, jiji! I can help out!" He looked at me puzzled for a moment while I just giggled.

"I mean, I need a friend who isn't related to me after all and…I'm sure he'd like a friend too, right?" I'd morphed the last part into a question at the last second, my own presumption making me somewhat hesitant despite my overeager behavior.

The smile I received from my grandfather was reassuring though. He hugged me tightly before standing me up in front of him with a proud look on his face, one that I didn't get tired of seeing aimed at me.

"That's an excellent idea, Haruo! We'll have a little talk to your mother about letting you out to stretch your legs some tomorrow." I cheered and clenched my hands before me. I was going to make it up to Naruto for not being there somehow, starting tomorrow.

"But for now, Haruo…" Suddenly grandpa got a scary look in his eyes that I'd soon come to associate with terror. "It's time to get you to training, Sarutobi-style."

Yeah, I was sooo going to hate myself for asking for it later…or at least my body was, I might not come out of this one conscious enough to hate myself.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Hello, peeps and peepettes! The Darkest of Howls is back once more with an update for this bad boy. This one got written just as fast as the last one, I just held it back a bit to give you guys a little time to catch up. The words and ideas for this story just keep flowing, but I'm still working on RWTP on the side, I've just run into a bit of a block on that one. Any tips, suggestions, and reviews are appreciated as usual, Roarend Darkhowl signing off. Also, I do not own Naruto.

The Prodigal Sun

Chapter 3: Monkey Do

My body had invented some new curse words by the time grandpa and I got done putting it through its paces.

No fucking joke, that man was a sadist hidden in kind grandfather's clothing. He put me through so much shit that I had that one song from _Mulan_ idly playing in the back of my head for the entire training session. My sores had sores on them and I wasn't sure how I was going to walk the next morning afterwards.

Thankfully, that last part was actually something he had considered for, but I'll get to that after the content of my tor- training.

It started off normal enough.

He made me do some rather vigorous warm-ups that I quite enjoyed actually, as it was based off exercises that his monkey summons did. I'd liken it to tai chi and yoga mixed together, a lot of agility strengthening exercises involving stances, clenching, and stretching most of it focused low.

I think he might've been trying to give me a lower center of gravity, an ideology I agreed with whole heartedly, as I remembered how wrestling from high school worked. Getting under your opponent gave you a deceptive advantage that wasn't always acknowledged.

He ended actually doubling up this exercise since I wasn't going anywhere while squatting and whatnot, asking me questions about Sasuke Sarutobi's biography that I was only too eager to answer. I mean, it was a pop quiz, but I had fun with it, something I didn't know was possible.

He made me sit in front of him after that with my shirt off and, somehow I knew before he even brought out the brush and ink, he prepared to place some seals on me.

Yeah, fūinjutsu was something that I had a passing interest in, not enough to seriously study up on it other than the basics, but I wanted to be able at least to do the simple stuff. Things like making my own storage scrolls, sensor seals, maybe something for battle if I can squeeze in the time, but that was all though.

I didn't want to be too ambitious, as I'd never achieve true proficiency in anything that way.

Now the weight seals placed on me operated according to how well your body was regulating at their current level and then they adjusted accordingly. There was a manual way to up the weight, which increased the current weight by an increment of five for each increase, however that was only usable for the person who had inscribed the seal with their chakra-ink mixture.

This was also the same for turning the seal off, which made me rather hesitant about the whole deal, but I trusted my grandpa.

For now, the old man had the reins but he acceded to my request to showing me how to make them when I was Genin, so I could have more control over my training.

After they were applied, I was put through some rather ambitious calisthenics…who am I kidding? Listen, the old man made me carry a bō with five pound sandbags on either end across my shoulders and then run up and down the Hokage Monument's staircase a few dozen times. Anyone feeling sorry for me yet, yeah just hold on to that thought.

He then had me strap those same sandbags to my waist and use a low hanging branch to do pull ups and, after he flipped me over with ease that made me yelp, sit ups with the branch tucked under my knees.

He then had me do push-ups but they were some weird ones, he had me settle on my knuckles instead of my palms and had me curl my toes instead of balancing on the tips, and then press up from that position. That was not fun and was actually quite painful after I uncurled my hands and feet.

I was sweating and shaking badly after that, which he proceeded to solve by tossing me into a pond that was a few hundred meters back from the Monument.

After I'd floundered because I had additional freaking weight on, he turned the seals off long enough for me to drink and cleanse myself to his satisfaction, and then proceeded to turn them back on, making me introduce my face to the ground.

After some good-natured grumbling about my handsome face, he had me do some physical conditioning to cool down.

He was adamant on working very particular muscles, joints, and tendons. He wanted me to build up my up my arms, specifically my hands and forearms, and my legs, specifically my feet and as a priority.

I wasn't sure why but I was willing to have faith in the Professor's word.

He quickly made up a schedule with my mother, so that I could still have my lessons with her and train later on in the day with grandpa. He said that due to work, he'd probably be forced to send a clone to instruct me most of the time, but I assured him I was fine with that as long as I continued to receive instruction, period.

Now, by the time I was done with my training I was contemplating how my second death didn't sound so bad right about now. However, my grandfather had foreseen this and planned for it, in fact.

He told me the only reason he'd pushed me as hard as he had is because one, he knew I could take, which was a compliment that I took no small degree of pride in, and two, there was a secret Sarutobi remedy that our clan had for hard training. He took me to a large rock formation that I'd never explored because I'd never seen a reason to, figuring it was just a bunch of rocks clumped together.

However, he showed me a hidden staircase that leads up and into the interior of the formation where I found—the Sarutobi familial onsen waiting for me.

Now, if you've never been in an onsen or even if you have been in one, this one kicked all of those regular hot water wannabes asses.

I don't know what was so special about it, but I disrobed and toweled up right before I sank into this heavenly warmth that just bubbled around me. It was almost like receiving a massage and being in a hot tub all at the same time, my body felt so tingly and loose. I'm not sure how it was done, grandpa said some complicated stuff about minerals in the rocks and water makeup, but I was too busy melting to pay much attention.

When he questioned me about whether or not I'd been using chakra to reinforce my muscles during the training, I almost sank to the bottom out of shame.

How was I supposed to know to do that? Chakra was a new beast to me and I wasn't even sure if grandpa wanted me to use it during training or not.

I still did my control exercises in my spare time, but I'd never actually used my chakra 'inside' my body before, I always channeled onto or into something.

My head was abuzz with the advice he'd given me for chakra enhancement when I passed out later.

Whatever was in that onsen definitely did the trick as, aside from a little discomfort because of the added weight on my body, I was filled with my usual energy and physically fine the next morning. I could feel the swollenness of the places I'd worked out the day before, but it was already disappearing like I'd been in an ice bath instead of an onsen.

So, it was with a rather light heart that I set out from the clan compound after my lessons, my grandfather and I successful in persuading my mother to let me roam the village, albeit with two ANBU shadowing me if things went south.

I was perfectly okay with that, as ANBU were good at their job of remaining on hand but unseen and not hovering like mother hens.

My trip into the village by myself for the first time was fascinating and frustrating in equal measure…not that that was unexpected.

I wanted just to enjoy mingling amongst the people, seeing all the buildings, and maybe sampling a few of the restaurants. I did that to a degree, but I was hounded at almost every minute or the other by ass kissing civilians, who were easily distinguished from the polite ones by how annoyingly persistent they were when it came to offers of discounts at their businesses or 'special offers'.

I was polite and courteous, just like my mom taught me to be, but on the inside, I was ready to wring the neck of the next person who tried to brownnose me.

After getting a snack from an unassuming dango stand, which consisted of sesame dumplings with some kind of brown sauce, I made my way to the central park area in Konoha. It was where a good deal of the parents brought their kids, and it was where I was hoping to find a certain blond-haired boy.

I saw a few familiar faces that I wasn't quite ready to introduce myself to yet, being corralled by their parents, but no sign of Naruto.

I resigned myself to making to contact with one of my babysitters by way of silent hand-sign, a little something I picked up when reading through _Silent_ _Leaves_ ,a book about Hidden Leaf signing. I was rather delighted when my ANBU guards responded with a prompt return inquiry, unsure if the signs I'd read were up to date or not.

My request to know where the Konoha orphanage was must have startled them a bit, but they gave me accurate instructions regardless. I was about to rush off toward my new destination, but I spied something on the way that gave me an idea that I'm sure my mom would've been proud of…I'm not a momma's boy, shut up.

After my impromptu stop, I finally made my way to the outskirts of the village proper, just before the forests between it and the wall took over. I was laden with several parcels that I refused to let my ANBU carry for me on principle alone.

I saw several children playing around outside the long building, built almost like a lodge. Some watched me warily as I approached the place, seemingly scared of my ANBU who didn't have a place to remain unseen, as the area around the orphanage was all open field.

Not even a freaking tree for them to hide up, I felt bad for the poor guys.

I arrived to see the Matron of the place approaching me with one of her aides, seemingly alerted to my coming. I kept my eyes peeled as I walked towards her, my eyes peering around for Naruto over the top of one of the parcels in my arms.

I still hadn't spotted his golden locks anywhere by the time I reached the emerald-eyed, honey-haired woman who ran the place. She had a coif on over her head and wore a black, loose robe kind of like a nun, actually.

Her glasses flashed a bit in the dying sunlight as she smiled down at me. "Well, well who do we have here, paying us a visit?"

She'd crouched to eye-level with me as she spoke, which automatically put her in my good books, this whole being short thing was for the dogs.

I smiled back at her rather sheepishly, aware of the attention I was now attracting. Unlike my past life though, I'd learned not to sweat it so much, thanks again to my dad.

I bowed to her as best I could with all the packages I was burdened with. "Hello there, Matron-san! I'm Sarutobi Haruo, it's nice to meet you!"

Now, if I came across as particularly gregarious, I would like to point out that I just started personal training to be a super badass under the Hokage's instruction. Just thinking about the total overhaul I'd gone through to get here made me giddy sometimes, as I was now having fun.

I think it was rather easy for the Matron to pick up on my happiness, as she smiled back at me warmly, inclining her head in return to my bow. "Isn't this a surprise, I wasn't expecting you to stop by today, Honorable Grandson. Otherwise I would've–"

I reached up as well as I could with one hand and patted her clasped ones, causing her to trail off. I didn't mean to be rude by not letting her finish telling me what she would've done for the occasion, but I needed to set a point straight immediately.

"Pardon me for interrupting, Matron-san. However, I not very particular to any titles I have not earned myself, so I'd much prefer it if you just called me Haruo." She looked like she might protest and, no matter how kind she was trying to be, I was intent on putting my foot down on this one, so I forged onward.

I was very against having canon Konohamaru's problem, one that he wouldn't ever have as far as I was concerned.

"I mean, I'm just another kid after all, very much like the ones you and your helpers are kindly looking after here." I gestured around me at the children, just now noticing they had formed a crowd around us, which made me sweat a little bit.

I turned back to the nice Matron deliberately to avoid the stares the assembly was giving me, clearing my throat a bit to un-stick the awkwardness I could feel clogging it up.

"And, well, who I am related to shouldn't change that fact and as far as I am concerned it has no bearing on how _I_ should be treated." I said all this as calmly as I could. Now, why did I say this?

I said it, because I'd been hearing 'Honorable Grandson' all day and I was very sick of it at this point.

Better to be seen as rude for interrupting someone, than to be seen as dangerous because you lost your temper. Mom's lessons were really paying dividends out here in the real world, thank goodness.

The Matron seemed a bit taken aback at first, as did her aide, but she soon responded with a more genuine seeming smile than before, tilting her head as if considering me.

"Okay, then. Haruo it is. Now, how can we help you here today, I doubt you're looking to adopt?" I couldn't help joining her and the other kids in laughing at that one and I think one of ANBU might've cut of a snicker before it could really get started.

"I hardly think I'm father material at this present time, Matron, thank you." She and I shared that little joke with our eyes, the mischief in my own reflecting off hers. "Instead of you helping me, in fact, I've come bearing gifts!"

I handed over the parcels in my hands finally.

Don't get me wrong, I wanted to carry it, I really did. My weight seal was just making it hard enough to walk, let alone carry stuff around with me, so my body was bitching at this point.

A little bit later, after she had thanked me for the candied fruit and subsequently had the children thank me too, her aides were distributing it all to the little rascals.

I was little red in the face from all the praise, as I didn't think much of it. I mean, I didn't need the allowance I received from my mother for myself anyway, I got most of what I needed at home or from my grandfather.

"Oh, and who's that for, then?" The Matron, who all the children called Mother, – which was something so sweet I was going to check for cavities later – took notice of the small package I'd kept to myself.

I smiled at her before making a show of looking around for eavesdroppers, which made her chuckle. "You wouldn't happen to know where Naruto Uzumaki is, would you?"

To her credit, she only looked surprised for a second before she looked around at the assemblage of children thoughtfully, humming to herself.

"I can't be entirely sure, but he usually spends the day at the smaller park by the Academy building and doesn't come back until late. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help than that." I was fine with that, if I didn't find him on the first day, than I'd just look tomorrow.

I still thanked her and bowed once more before heading to the place she'd mentioned, not knowing that my trip here had inspired curiosity in someone.

I trekked down the side street that would lead me to the park, my ANBU blended back into the rooftops and alleyways, wondering how I would handle meeting Naruto.

He'd most likely be a good deal warier of me than the other orphans, considering how the villagers probably treated him. Kami forbid the little guy didn't like me, but I wasn't betting on that, canon Naruto being a rather nice guy once you got to know him.

I was turning onto the last street before the park, to witness a confrontation between a large civilian man and…Naruto. Wow…I found him. That was easy.

I automatically honed in on the small, blonde-haired boy.

He didn't look great in the slightest, his clothes were worn like the other orphans, but I could see the signs of stains and rips in them that signified more than just wear and tear. His face was coated in a fine layer of dirt, like he'd been eating it. His blue eyes were tearing, screwed up in fear as the large man loomed over him, yelling profanities.

I was suitably upset at this man, even if the half-empty bottle in his hand showed that he was most likely drunk, but I was more concerned for Naruto.

He had that same terrified look as he had when he was younger, throwing in some confusion for good measure. I'm sure he had no idea why this was happening to him…just like that I felt that feeling roiling in my gut, my protective instinct coming forth without warning.

I saw the man toss his bottle against the wall, shattering it and sending the contents splashing across the wood fence. I had been moving forward unconsciously at this point, my body on autopilot as I tried to get a better read on the situation, trying to decipher the drunken idiot's loud slurring.

Then I saw him raise his hand in a fist, the action causing Naruto to fall back on his butt.

My body moved of its own accord at that point and the next thing I knew I was in between them.

I saw the blow approaching out of the corner of my eye, my focus on Naruto's huddling form at my feet. His eyes looked up to meet mine for a split second, right before the punch landed solidly across my right cheek.

My head jerked to one side and I fell in the same direction, barely managing to catch myself with one hand. My face ached as I dropped to one knee, the intense initial pain of the blow making stars flash across my vision momentarily.

The point of contact was already swelling up and that part of my face felt hot when I placed my hand over it in an attempt to rub some feeling back into it.

I saw that my ANBU had quickly pinned the man against very the wall he'd tossed his booze against before, their tantos held at his neck. Things were moving too fast at this point and in my pain-addled mind, I horrified that they were going cut the guy down right there.

I raised a hand to get their attention, stilling holding my face with the other.

"Wait a moment! Just wait!" I was having a hard time making it to my feet, my head feeling both light and heavy somehow. I felt more than saw someone help me up, my attention fixated on the edges of steel near the cowed civilian's neck.

I didn't know if I could order these ANBU around, but dammit, they were not going murder this man in cold blood if I could help it.

"…T-take him to containment, let him cool down and detox. After you've done that, then turn him over to the police for a reprimand. Make sure it is proportionally accountable to the crime." I was in pain and an little loopy, so I just let that serious, little voice that sounded like my dad when he was talking about work take over.

The ANBU looked at each other, then back to me, before they both disengaged from the man, with one of them immediately disappearing with him in a Shunshin. The other nodded at me before disappearing to a nearby rooftop, presumably to return to his watch over me.

I have no idea what happened to that man, or if my orders were even followed, but part of me hoped that was the case.

I eventually got lucid enough to realize that I was still being supported on my feet, but my ANBU weren't around so that left me with…oh.

I looked down to see a pair of wide, blue eyes staring up at me with something that looked uncomfortably like awe. Was this the first time that someone had stood up for him, or was he more enamored with my 'handling' of the ANBU?

All I know is that when my eyes fell on his own, he involuntarily flinched backwards as if, even though he was holding me up after getting decked in the face, I was going to start yelling at him or something.

This village, that I'd had been on the fence about, what with its mixture of sycophants and nice people, had done this to him.

I'd been silent too long, just staring at him as he looked at the ground like a kicked dog. He had one of my arms thrown over his tiny shoulders, so I used the hand on that arm to pat his head gently.

His eyes snapped up to see my face creasing into an easy smile. "Hey, you okay little guy?" He was so small, even for his age he looked on the shrimpy side. Malnutrition, I inwardly cringed.

His eyes went impossibly wide and he ducked his head again for a second, before looking back up at me, as if I might've changed my tune in the time between. He looked so shy and innocent here, I have to wonder how much the neglect and abuse of the village really affected him over the years. "I-I'm 'kay. A-a-are you 'kay?"

Oh my goodness, he was like a little, male Hinata. I had to reign in my masculinity for a second, as I was half-tempted to give him a big hug and take him home to my mother.

Instead, I just settled for grinning at him and nodding. "I'll be fine, that guy couldn't dent a pillow, the way he punches."

The joke was a weak one, but he giggled at it nonetheless and that made me feel better.

I stood myself up properly, making sure not to draw away from him too quickly, as he seemed pretty skittish, almost like a deer. I crouched a little in front of him as his size has already been pointed out and I was actually tall for my age, all arms and legs.

He met my gaze hesitantly still, his hands hanging loosely at his side. I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring look, wondering what to say before deciding to just go for it and be honest.

I scratched my swollen cheek and chuckled a little. "I've been looking all over for you, Naruto. The Matron said you usually hung out at the park nearby so I came to see if that's where you were. Good thing I got here when I did, otherwise you'd have taken that guy apart, huh?"

He giggled at the joke initially, until his mind caught up to the rest of my statement. Then he looked at me with confusion and…there was the wariness I was afraid of. "How do you know me? What you need to see me for? I…I haven' done nothing to you."

This was the reaction I was afraid of and hadn't figured out what to do about.

I looked down at the ground for some kind of inspiration and realized I must've dropped the last of the parcels I'd been saving for Naruto when that guy hit me. I picked it up off the ground and handed it towards Naruto, smiling still to show him I meant no harm.

"Let's try introductions first, I realize I never gave you my name and that was rude, my apologies." He crinkled his nose, but I wasn't sure, if that was due to the bag that he'd accepted or because he couldn't figure out why I was saying sorry.

"I'm Sarutobi Haruo, the Third's grandson and he was the one who told me about you, Naruto." I bowed to him, letting my mother's lessons guide me to try and bridge this gap of trust between us, figuring name-dropping the old man might help too.

I don't know if he bowed back or not, but I somehow doubt it.

When I raised my head again, I saw him looking from me to the bag that was in his hands. "You're jiji's grandson, huh?" He opened the bag without returning my gesture of greeting or waiting for my reply, but I understood his hesitance, he wasn't trying to be rude, merely see if I was the real deal or not.

I had to stifle a laugh when he called my grandpa the same as I did, with no sense of formality.

Seeing his face light up was a rather heartening sight, almost heartbreaking after I thought that this might be the first time anyone has given him a gift. He folded the packaging back up again with care before he walked forward and wrapped his short arms around my waist.

I might've forgotten to breath at this point, I'm not sure. "Thank you for the food, nii-chan."

Once more, an iron grasp had to be kept on my emotions, because the simple act of Naruto hugging me and calling me his older brother almost made me break down into tears.

I settled for returning the hug and patting him on the back whilst utterly denying that my tear ducts were burning, before backing away slightly and crouching to his eye level again.

I figured it'd make him more comfortable if he didn't have to look up at me all the time. "Say Naruto, how about we get something to eat and talk just you and me? After that I'll walk you back to the orphanage, okay?"

Naruto wasn't exactly easy to trust me, but I think the promise of food and the memory of how I stepped in earlier persuaded him to come with me. Along the way there, I got him to open up a bit more with some easy conversation and jokes that were sometimes even at my own expense. I don't know how to put, but he brought out my more playful side that I usually only reserved for my family members.

By the time we got to the ramen stand, I was giving him a piggyback ride at his request and my acceptance.

I think that my grandfather must've been watching us through his crystal ball, because when I showed up late to our training that evening his clone only smiled at me before we started.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Hey there, folks! The Howler of Darkness is back once again with an update to go along with this new chapter.

I was told by a friend that I had too many blocky paragraphs taking up space and the chapters weren't flowing at a good pace. I adjusted the older chapters accordingly, as well as this one, so tell me what you think…or not, no pressure.

Roarend Darkhowl out.

Also I do not own Naruto.

The Prodigal Sun

Chapter 4: Monkey Passes Torch

I didn't have much time for anything but training, learning, and Naruto after we first met officially.

I was glad for all that though. It kept me busy and it was a start to getting the basic tools I needed if I wanted to go the distance. I was diligent about something for once, mainly because I knew that any slacking off here could very well get me killed later on.

I didn't have a bloodline, hadn't developed any outstanding talents yet, and didn't have a tailed beast sealed within me. But I _was_ driven not to be left behind, not if I wanted to make a difference.

That didn't mean I never complained, in fact that was the furthest from the truth.

I told my grandfather early on, if during our training I'm complaining or cursing, that just means I'm willing to deal and push through it. It's when I go quiet that you need to worry, as that means I'm not speaking up because I can't summon the energy to do so.

Never had I ever wished that I had a cheating nine-tailed demon fox to heal me overnight or the fabled Uzumaki stamina that a certain friend of mine did to keep going with ease, until I did that training.

I was pushing myself not to slouch by any means, especially since we were starting so young, but damn was I in pain for those first few months.

It didn't get any better after my father got back from his mission, either.

For one, he delegated me morning exercises, nothing to the extent that my grandfather and I did, but enough to get a sweat going and feel the burn in my body.

Another thing, him and mother were spending more time together, probably due to him being gone for so long, that mom didn't read with me like she used to and ended up assigning me texts to read instead.

On top of that, I was also competing with Naruto for attention now, as I'd had the brilliant idea to have him visit the compound, where my mother fell in love with him. He soaked up her affections like a sponge, which led to me only inviting me over sparingly.

I didn't want him to overindulge in affection as that might have the effect of canceling out the appreciation for precious people that his isolation had instilled in him. I also didn't want Naruto to know that I was training to become a ninja, as I knew he would've tried to monopolize my grandfather's attention next.

I won't lie, Naruto could kind of be a brat, but I was willing to allow him _some_ consolations because he had no parents of his own to guide him. Combined with a rather neglectful life at the orphanage and amongst the village in general, Naruto was rather annoying if he wasn't receiving attention from someone he knew _would_ pay attention to him.

My logic was this: I was willing to be Naruto's friend and help him, I was willing to be Naruto's family and care for him, but I refused to coddle him like I had been in the past. That had the tendency to lead to overreliance on others to solve your problems, to take for granted those same people you rely on, and to slack off in your own endeavors expecting others to pick up your slack.

I know what I'm talking about trust me. I lived that life until I had no friends and barely interacted with my family beyond wanting something from them.

So I introduced Naruto to the Ichirakus and hoped that together we could tide Naruto over until he got a team…in eight years.

It wasn't the best plan, I know! Give me some leniency here I was only five! I also had my own things going on, with my schedule soon became even busier.

After those first few months of training with grandpa, where I continued to do a similar routine with aid from his clone or himself on occasion, I was soon introduced to the summons whose movements I was emulating. Not just any summons either, as grandpa went all out and summoned Enma himself.

I was suitably terrified of what he could possibly want me to do with the Boss-level summon, as I knew that I wasn't old enough to sign the damn summoning contract and Enma could crush me with his pinky finger if he tried.

I was simultaneously relieved and confused when he told me that I was going to be…babysitting or monkey sitting, in this case.

I had no idea what that meant, but it was quickly explained to me that I was going to be playing with Enma's own grandchildren while he and grandpa trained intensively for the next month. Apparently, the old man was worried he was losing his edge, but he also told me that it was to my benefit, as well.

I would understand what he meant very soon into the 'playing'. Enma had a total of five grandchildren: Yana, Bao, Hiya, Ria, and Kaz.

I don't know how summons age at all, I was told that Enma's father was the summon Boss when Sasuke Sarutobi acquired the contract, which was a funny story in and of itself.

I _did_ _know_ that Enma's sons were about high-chunin level at the time and that they and their mates had taken to shoving their kids off onto Enma so that they could train more, hence his need for me to watch them while he trained with grandpa.

I was suitably chagrined about this, as I didn't know how I was going to watch them at the same time I was supposed to do my training…my grandfather's ominous chuckles disturbed me when I asked him that question.

So a little background: Enma had four children, three sons and a daughter, the three sons having a son apiece respectively and the daughter having twin daughters herself.

Now Ria and Hiya were the twins, they were also the smallest of the five grandchildren, and were the only 'monkeys' of the group. They both had golden fur streaked with black, almost brush-like tails, and blue tinted faces.

They were also dynamically opposite from one another in personality with Hiya being somewhat shy contrasting to Ria's rather bombastic nature. However, they were both fairly amicable with Hiya usually following Ria's lead when it came to playing.

Yana was the oldest of the bunch as far as I could tell and one of the three apes of the children.

He honestly seemed to be somewhat lazy and antisocial, even for an orangutan. He almost reminded me of a Nara, not really needing to be watched and he didn't particularly care to play, preferring to just retreat to the higher branches of the trees and look for fruit or particularly comfy branches to sleep on.

He was pretty easy-going all things considered, but I wished that he'd use his authority as the eldest to help me keep his brothers in line.

Bao and Kaz were the final two grandchildren, also being the most trouble of the five.

Unlike the others, these two apes had a problem with one another. They were drastically different from each other in almost every way. To start with, they were different kinds of apes, or classifications I think.

Bao was a loud, acrobatic type of gibbon, if I remember correctly. He had reddish-brown, thick fur and long arms that made him not so much swing through the trees as fly through them. He had an intense dislike for water and liked to pull pranks on the others. I actually liked him, as he reminded me a good deal of Naruto.

Kaz on the other hand was a soft-spoken, deliberate type of _gorilla_ , of which I had no trouble identifying. He had long, shaggy black fur and powerful arms that could already lift small boulders over his head.

He didn't enjoy spending time in the trees as much, preferring to keep his feet on the ground. He also was rather serious and took things a bit took personally whenever Bao was goofing around. I likened him to a less arrogant Uchiha, but he was genuinely a nice ape whenever someone wasn't poking fun at him.

Now, this obviously put the two cousins at odds on more than one occasion, but I was able to delegate some help from the twins as a temporary solution.

Whenever a fight was looking to break out between the two, I would immediately tell Ria to go and play tag with Bao. His attention diverted, I would ask Hiya to engage Kaz in a helping her to get some fruit. Kaz was a bit of a softy when it came to the Hiya, much like a protective older brother.

I learned a lot that month, not only about handling different personalities, but I got my workout in as well.

Bao and Ria insisted that I swing with them through the trees, which surprisingly only ended in disaster once and I was okay a few days after visiting the hospital. I found the swinging thing pretty easy after I experimented with applying my chakra to stick my hand to the area of contact. I admit to feeling a little like Tarzan, but the two of them would always giggle when I let out the cry, so I couldn't help it.

Kaz was very serious about his own workout regimen, no surprise there, and had me join him in his physical exertions, but he was very particular about it.

He'd only allow me to join him if I assumed the 'correct form', as apparently it was something his father had drilled into him. So, in the spirit of the whole thing, I got down in a crouch on my knuckles while doing his boulder lifting with him. That was kind of a bitch to do, if I'm honest, but Kaz was very persuasive.

Hiya was kind of a wallflower at first. I wanted to do things with here, but she didn't seem to do much of anything.

That was until I caught her swimming in the Sarutobi onsen when I went for an early soak. Apparently, she liked water about as much as Bao didn't like it and enjoyed the tranquil activity that swimming offered. I ended up joining her on more than one occasion, more in an effort to get her to come out of her shell than as a workout.

During that month, I noticed a particular…difference in my mother.

She was gaining quite the bump on her tummy, something that my grandfather pointed out after he'd returned haggard and ragged from his intensive training with Enma.

Yeah…I'd forgotten about another factor I was going to have to adjust for…being a big brother.

I was okay with it initially, after all how worse could taking care of a baby human be than taking care of super powerful baby monkeys.

The answer is quite…quite different.

My dad was no real help as he was getting sent out more and more often, for longer periods of time, to his chagrin. I'd finally asked him what he specifically did as a ninja that kept him out for so long.

He didn't come out and tell me, he'd deflected the question and told me he was doing his utmost to make sure that we continued to be safe and happy. He did tell me that he was sure that I'd be able to figure it out on my own if I tried hard enough, me being a smart boy.

I figured that he must've been in ANBU if he couldn't tell me.

That was another thing I liked about my dad though, he let me come to my own conclusions and didn't much care to control how I lived my life. He allotted me a chance to do something myself, to really try and do it on my own, before he'd step in to assist me. He'd rather be there to support me, guide me when that wasn't enough, but never lead my life for me.

Now, I had just turned six a couple months back and Konohamaru, or Ko as I'd taken to calling him because damn was his name long, was only about three or four months old. I enthralled by the little bundle of pain in the ass, he wasn't even remotely easy to take care of but he was _my_ little brother…I'd never officially had one of those before.

I still had my unofficial little brother in everything but blood, though.

Naruto had seemed almost as mesmerized as me when I showed a sleeping Ko to him, but he quickly started crying all over me when I told him that we'd both have to set a good example as older brothers. That in turn led to Ko waking up and crying as well…this was going to be harder than I thought.

Let's not even talk about me having to change Ko's diaper for the first time, I'd rather not.

Anyways, it was around this point in time that grandpa blindsided me with an offer to opt into the Academy early by a year.

I know, right? The nerve of him, tempting me with an official education in the ninja arts before everyone else, I mean where did he get off?

All joking aside, I almost dropped the stupid weighted bō off my shoulders when he brought it up. I was unsure to say the least and asked him to give me some time to think it over, which meant he gave me deadline for when new applicants could apply…oh goody I love deadlines.

I talked it over with my mom who was similarly uneasy about the thought of me going at an earlier date. The last pregnancy had seemed to take a lot out of her, as she was a lot more tired than usual and paler than before, she ended up sleeping a lot when not taking care of Ko. I ended up having to make sure she ate something half the time.

This only made my decision harder as I didn't want to leave my mother alone to take care of Ko when she wasn't at her best.

I was also faced with the dilemma of not being in the age group I wanted to be in for the Academy.

I'd gotten it all planned out that I would be a part of the same age group of genin that Team Guy was in. That'd put me at a close enough position to be part of the action the Konoha Twelve was and wouldn't push any of them out of their team spots. It also would mean that I wouldn't have to fail the Genin Exam once just to be amongst the action.

I was really agonizing if I wanted to mess up potentially by being in a two-year older genin team or, Kami forbid, making Chunin before everyone else.

Eventually the decision was made, however just not in the way I was expecting.

I remember that day very clearly.

t was about two or three weeks until my seventh birthday and I was doing my own modified workout that I'd come together with my grandfather to create, something that mixed what he'd had me doing initially and incorporating some of the activities that I'd picked up from Enma's grandkids. I actually enjoyed the workout now as it gave me some time just to think over my decision I _still_ hadn't made over whether or not to opt in early.

I was on my second lap of the Sarutobi clan training ground, swinging through the branches of the trees with an ease that would've left the old me speechless.

It was a good exercise for control and stamina. The chakra application needed to be precise, as in too much chakra equals exploding bark and too little equals slipping off and falling possibly fifteen to twenty feet to the ground.

It also required a quick, reflexive hold on your chakra, because if you sent it to your hand too soon you run the risk of using too much causing option one to happen and if you sent it too late…well the slipping and falling thing would happen.

Which is how I almost ended up injuring myself a second time from this practice.

A Sarutobi clan member, my aunt Inaho I think, rushed out onto the clan grounds calling for me hysterically. This caused me to lose focus and, if I hadn't been learning how to fall right as part of the fighting style grandpa had just started teaching me, I would've probably had a lot worse than a sprained ankle.

I asked her what was wrong as politely as I could while in pain, to which she responded by breaking down sobbing with me barely able to make out the fact that my grandfather wanted to see me.

I felt a chill not unlike the one I felt the night of the Kyubi attack when I approached the compound.

It was late afternoon and a lot more Sarutobi clan members were home than should've been. I was allowed through a knot of them, the red and white hat of the Hokage leading my way…along with the cries of my mother and Ko.

I entered the ring, many of my family members' eyes on me, to find my grandfather standing alongside my uncle.

Asuma was comforting my mother who clutched Konohamaru to her like a lifeline. In the old man's hands was something that took the breath from my body. As my grandpa turned towards me, noticing my presence inside the epicenter of concerned relatives, the object's jagged edge caught the light.

It was a Saru mask—spider web-like cracks across its face from where it was broken.

I was cold and hot at the same time, ignoring the small cynical portion of my mind that scoffed at the irony of the mask. Anger and denial raged inside my mind only for grief and acceptance to soothe it like a balm and begin the process anew.

In the end, I ended up crying without even noticing, my tears soaking the robes of my grandfather as he held his arms around me.

I settled on anger and disbelief for a moment, allowing the emotions to burn through my system like lava.

I wanted to scream and punch something, I wanted to run and find someplace where this wasn't real, I wanted…I wanted what Obito wanted for a split second, to live in a world where this hadn't happened.

That thought sent a cold shiver down my spine, mostly because of the fact that I'd thought it at all.

In that moment, I questioned myself. I questioned what good I could do, I questioned if any of it would make a difference, and I wondered what the point of it all was. Was I really going to make any change to the equation of things to come?

Was I going to be the only Sarutobi in my immediate family alive at the end of all this, with Konohamaru looking solely to me for guidance? Would I be unable to save anyone or anything, would my efforts to protect be in vain?

I was floundering, my self-criticism rearing its ugly head and feasting on my doubts, fueling my helplessness.

Then I remembered something that my dad told me before he'd left for work once.

I was four and still a little bit bratty, so I got kind of mad when my dad had to leave for another mission so soon after his last one. He was in a rush, but he still took time right before he left to give me a hug.

He pulled back and gave me a smile, before he said, "Haruo, you're a big boy now, you don't have any excuses to get angry about things anymore. That anger isn't going to help you, it isn't going to help me or your mom or anyone else, and it certainly isn't going to make you any happier. After all, you can't be happy if you're angry all the time…and wouldn't you rather be happy than angry?"

Then he'd ruffled my hair and disappeared in a Shunshin, his smile staying with me long after he'd left.

I had lost him, my family had lost him, but what would getting upset about it do? It'd probably only make me feel worse, along with everyone around me.

I looked at my mom and my uncle, the grief etched into their faces clearly and I felt my grandfather shaking in his own silent sorrow. No, getting upset here would just make everyone else feel more terrible than they already did.

I felt like I wanted to do something to make them feel better, to make _me_ feel better, like _he_ would've, but I couldn't think of anything.

Then I spotted the Saru mask that my dad had worn with pride and anonymity, still held by my grandfather. I had a flash of inspiration, something crazy but kind, something that would've made my dad smile like it was his idea.

I untangled myself from the Hokage robes that I seemed to be drowning in, rudely wiping my eyes on them before I turned and made my way back through my throng of mourning relatives. Voices yelled out for me, some people tried to grab a hold of me but I avoided them all, running out to the back of the compound.

We had a shed back there that housed our tools, both civilian and ninja. This was where I ended up, slicing my finger on the sharpened edge next to the blood seal so that I could open it.

I entered with a purpose, blowing past the ninja gear inside, to take up a hammer and nail. I exited at a full sprint, blowing by the few of the relatives that had come to make sure I didn't do anything stupid in my supposed upset state.

I arrived back amongst the massed Sarutobi clan crowd, shaking my head at people who asked me what I was doing, and noting the amount of attention my excursion had given me.

I walked straight through them all, not stopping to take questions, heading right to my grandfather. He was looking at me oddly, no doubt just as confused as the rest about what I was up to.

I held out my hand for the mask, which he only gave me out of curiosity, I think.

I studiously didn't look towards my uncle and mother, not wanting their reactions to give me possible doubt at this stage. I was wired solely by my crazy notion at this point.

I'm pretty sure no one had a clue what I was thinking when I moved towards the compound's shrine.

The shrine was set off in a little cloister off the main hall where everyone was gathered and it was a place where we Sarutobi honored our ancestors and made our vows when becoming a ninja of the clan, and of course the Leaf.

Sasuke Sarutobi was our progenitor and was thus a popular figure to pray to for guidance, but any relatives who'd passed on were revered here.

The shrine itself consisted of a stone tablet that took up most of one wall, the name of each member of the clan etched into it upon their death. The other walls were bare but for the windows that let in the last light of the day's sun.

In that waning light, I saw the ceremonial chisel and hammer laid out in front of the tablet, my father's name freshly engraved onto the tablet.

I forced down a sudden resurgence of tears and moved to a small patch of open wall to the side of the tablet, placing the nail against it and raising the hammer. I ignored further questions from my increasingly concerned relatives, focused on my task as I was.

Finished, I centered the mask along its vertical axis before setting it on the nail, careful not to let it slip.

I'd only been to use the shrine once, not too long ago in fact. I'd been in there a few days back, to pray to Sasuke Sarutobi to help me in my decision whether to start the Academy early or not.

That was the reason why I knew where the matches to light the incense where located at.

I moved the bowl holding an unlit stick of incense in front of my father's mask, my fingers steady as I struck the match.

A hush had fallen behind me.

No more were my family members questioning my actions, which meant I had no interruptions when I kneeled down, closed my eyes, and clasped my hands together in prayer.

I wasn't much into prayer when I was alive before and you'd be hard pressed to get me to go to a place of worship. I'd never taken the act very seriously here either, but I'd watch my dad do it and he did it more of as a way to 'have a chat with our ancestors' as he put it.

So that's what I did here, taking a deep breath before doing so.

"Hey, dad. I bet you're pretty upset right now, what with everyone angry and sad over your death."

I fought to keep my voice steady, strong…just like his.

"I was pretty mad myself when I found out, mad at you, mad at the world. I didn't want to believe that it was true, when it was."

I heard a shuffle in the crowd behind me, probably a family member fidgeting.

"I wanted to scream and break things and generally be miserable. Then I remembered what you told me about getting angry, about how it doesn't really help anyone…about how it doesn't make you or anyone else happy."

My voice was starting to break against my wishes, but still I had more I needed to say dammit!

"I remember how you always tried your best so that we could be happy t-together…how you never got upset with me or anybody else…how you wanted everyone to get along because there was enough fighting in the world without us doing it with those we…we love."

I was struggling to get the words out at this point, my throat closing up and my body shaking with the feeling of my emotions pouring out.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to do…do my very best to follow your example…to put the safety and happiness of my friends, my family, and myself ahead of personal anger. I-I hope that one day you can look down on me with pride…but for now I just want to tell you…I just wanted you to know…"

Moments with my father passed in my mind.

How he used to call me his 'little monkey' whenever I climbed all over him.

How he'd always tap a finger to my nose whenever I wasn't paying attention and laugh when I'd pout reflexively.

How he'd used to wrestle with me before bed whenever I had too much energy.

How he'd always tuck me in after mom read to me whenever he could.

How he'd tell me he was proud of me and he loved me.

I was running out steam, my mind clouding any more that I could say, but one thing.

I raised my head, my tears blurring my vision as I opened my eyes.

I looked at my dad's mask as well as possible and imagined his smile, my face smiling back at him as best I could. "…I just wanted to thank you for being my dad!"

I couldn't keep it together after that, I just fell to pieces then and there, my hand reaching up to brace myself against the wall beneath the mask my father wore in defense of his family and his village. I felt someone wrap their arms around me and when I heard Ko gurgling next to my ear, I knew it was my mother.

At my seventh birthday a few weeks later I asked my grandfather for additional training so that I could be ready to attend the Academy the next year—right along with the future members of Team Guy.

In the meantime, I was going to take care of my mother and my brothers, both of them.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: **Yola, bros and brettes! The one who Roars is back with another chap for you beautiful people.**

 **I'm grateful that some of you are finding something within this story that interests you enough to read it, I really am. Thanks for the continued support and remember to let me know what you think!**

 **Roarend Darkhowl out.**

 **Warning: I'm planning on a time skip in the near future, just to get to speed things up a bit after all the drama.**

* * *

The Prodigal Sun

Chapter 5: Monkey's Will Be Done

I never really had a confidante in the past, but in yet another act to be different than I had been before, I wanted to rely on someone to help me when I had a problem.

Funny how I never figured I'd be in the hospital at that confidante's bedside, watching on helplessly as they fought for their life.

My mother had been someone I was able to talk with about my doubts and my fears over the last year that I'd been taking care of her and Ko.

It may have not been ethically correct to share my doubts with someone who wasn't at their best. I just had so many cracks in my resolve after my father's death, regardless of my words, and my grandfather was far too busy to sit down with me and talk everyday like she did.

I didn't necessarily want my future commander as a ninja to know how shaky I was in the face of death anyway, grandpa or not.

Of course, I visited the shrine and talked with my dad a lot, which made me feel better afterwards, but that never really gave me the concrete answers I desired in response.

So I confided in my mother, against my better judgment, but I think she would've found a way of ferreting out what was wrong with me anyway.

Her support had gotten me through the last year of training and making sure Ko was looked after when I could.

My little brother was a little dense for a baby, but he tried a lot which made up for it most of the time. He still hadn't said his first word, but he was becoming more coherent.

Though I think he knew something was wrong with mom, too.

It wasn't that hard to figure out. It had progressively gotten harder and harder for her to get out of bed. She was exhausted so much whenever she did, that pretty soon I confined her to her room. Not long after that, she was in the hospital for the foreseeable future.

That led to today with me sitting next to her bed in a bit of a depressed funk. In one hand, I held her own and the other cradled Ko's formerly fidgeting form.

I'd had to come with some way to get him to go to sleep the last few months, as he didn't fall asleep whenever I read to him.

So it was with a great deal of trepidation that I…gulp…started singing to him to get him to sleep soundly.

Now, I wasn't a good singer by any means and I certainly couldn't match mom's soft tenor when she did lullabies.

So I ended up cheating somewhat and sang him Disney tunes.

Still, after one rendition of _You'll Be in My Heart_ , he was out like a light, so I wasn't complaining.

My mother was sleeping again and I was feeling a little lost to be honest. I had drowned myself in my grandfather's increasingly difficult training and my time with my little brothers to somewhat alleviate the fact that I might very well be close to losing my last parent.

I felt Naruto shift a bit restlessly behind me and sniff to himself, so I patted my mother's hand once before flinging my arm out to the side to reel in his tiny, shivering body.

He still wasn't very big, even if I was getting him to eat more than ramen every day. He was a normal sight at several meals at the Sarutobi household, many times being my test subject.

I'd gotten my Aunt Inaho to help teach me to cook somewhat, when I wasn't training, reading, or looking after Ko that was. Cooking was something I'd always been fascinated by, see as a brand of magic limited to culinary art graduates. It surprised me when I was able to pick it up as easily as I did. I mean wasn't a five-star chef by any means, but simple dishes served with copious amounts of rice were within my abilities.

I'd been promptly put to shame by the skills of my other relatives at my birthday last month.

My mother had given money to one of my relatives to buy me some clothes and Jotao's completed works, as he was quickly becoming one of my favorite philosophers in this world.

My grandfather had promised to teach me one of the Sarutobi family's own secret jutsu soon. Yeah, apparently we had one or two of those techniques that couldn't be copied by or duplicated by another shinobi without receiving instruction from a Sarutobi clan member.

My uncle…well he'd sent me a well-made kunai set made in Tetsu no Kuni along with his well wishes from the capital. I still don't know how grandpa and he had a falling out, but I had a feeling it might've had to do with how my dad's death affected them.

Finally, Naruto had gotten me a wallet shaped like a monkey, with a fuzzy tail working as the clasp. I didn't ask him how he got it, but I saw him looking gratefully at my grandfather when I opened it.

I tried to have fun at my party, but my mother's absence weighed a bit on me and I ended up visiting her again afterwards with a piece of my cake, regaling her with the tale of how Naruto had ended up wearing his piece instead of eating it.

I felt my little, blond brother bury his head into my shoulder, sniffling. I hadn't cried since my dad passed and my mother wasn't gone just yet, so I wasn't ready to cry so soon.

"I-it's just not fair, nii-chan." Naruto was kind of wiping his snot on me now, but I waited for him to finish while making a note to do laundry later. "Why'd this have to happen to her? I mean, she didn't deserve this."

I hummed to myself, patting him on the head while I collected my thoughts. This had to be dealt with gently and so I tried to put it in a way that wouldn't upset him.

"Well, otouto, it's said that the best people in the world are also the most prone to tragedy, or having bad things happen to them," I clarified, after seeing Naruto raise his head in confusion. "That's why it's generally thought that the good die young, the bad prosper in such large numbers, and the old shoulder so many regrets."

I looked at my mother, finding myself remember when her skin wasn't so pale or her hair so lank.

"She's obviously needed far more desperately in the next world than she is in this ours…at least dad will have some company, I'm sure he's probably lonely without her."

Naruto was looking at me thoughtfully, before glancing at her himself and scrubbing his eyes with his little hands. He sniffed once more before nodding determinedly and untangling himself from my arm.

"Okay then! I think I'll go and see jiji. Try and cheer him up some since he's probably not happy about this either."

I nodded at him, glad to see that he still put others well-being before his own, as I was afraid all the time he'd spent with us might've made him a bit spoiled.

That's when he did something he was particularly good at – he surprised me.

"After all, it's just like you said, nii-chan! 'We gotta put other people being happy and safe ahead of ourselves', right?" He beamed up at me with his foxy grin.

I stared at him for a second, a lump suddenly developed in my throat, preventing me from responding. Had he really taken the words of my father and me to heart, supplementing his own beliefs with ours?

I swallowed past the lump, returning his smile with one of my own and patting him on the head tenderly.

"That's exactly right, otouto, because it's far better when everyone is happy than upset." He nodded along as I finished the rest of the phrase, blinking up at me when I passed Ko to him. "Here, take Ko along with you, I think it'd be good if the Hokage spent some time with his third grandson for a change. I'm sure he'll appreciate it."

As I said this, I flicked one finger towards a seemingly blank stretch of wall and back to them, trusting my ANBU to get the message. 'One of you follow along to make sure they don't get into any trouble.'

I'd found that my ANBU followed my orders to a degree, as long as they didn't counteract any that my grandfather had previously given them.

Yeah, I might've been abusing that power a bit, but it was for my little brothers' sake.

Naruto looked up at me in confusion when I got up and walked out with him after placing a kiss on my mother's forehead.

"So, what are you going to be doing, nii-chan?" He sounded suspicious.

He'd discovered that I was receiving training from grandpa earlier this year, but instead of getting after my grandfather for training, he'd begun pestering _me_ to teach him 'cool ninja stuff'.

Needless to say, I folded like a paper bag once he'd begun the dreaded chibi-version of the 'puppy eyes of doom'. I only agreed to 'train' him for a few days out of the week, mostly because I wanted him to read some things first and he took a considerably longer time to do so than I did.

He might've whined about it at first until I told him that I was only as smart as I was because I read…I think he might've developed a little hero worship of me at some point…yeah that felt odd, nice of course, but odd.

It was the same way I felt about my dad, my uncle, and my grandfather. I didn't hero worship my mom, as I preferred to be in awe of her, like a unicorn.

"I'm just going to take walk around the village, clear my head a little bit."

I wanted some time to myself, just to think. I'd been trying to somewhat emulate my dad after his death, but I was a bit too serious, too careful.

I needed to find some way to loosen up, try and tap into that carefree, peaceful happiness that my dad seemed to channel when he was alive.

Being serious and careful was good for missions, not so much for living a mentally healthy life.

Naruto took my words at face value, parting with me at the hospital's entrance, but not before yelling a reminder at me to get a good night sleep for tomorrow.

Tomorrow was the day I'd start attending the Academy.

I'd come to talk with my mom about it earlier when she was awake. She'd lamented not being able to take me on my first day, making me promise to come and visit her afterwards to tell her all about it.

She was excited for me and it put me at ease seeing a little life return to her because of it, so I'd promised.

I'd not been walking for very long when I bumped into someone on accident, my own thoughts dimming my usual spatial awareness. Apparently we'd both been lost in thought, because we immediately responded by bowing to one another and apologizing.

When I raised my head, an amused smile on my face, I had to bite back a gasp.

The person had black hair framing his face in bangs and tied into a ponytail in back, his eyes just as dark a color themselves, and twin tear troughs ran deeply down his somewhat gaunt face.

I was sure that if I saw the back of his shirt I would see the Uchiha Fan.

It was Itachi, Itachi Uchiha.

I closed my eyes and smiled sheepishly at him, all the while trying to beat down my instinct to cry, for him or me I wasn't too sure.

"Ah, gomen Uchiha-san, I was thinking rather deeply and wasn't watching where I was going."

He didn't so much as bat an eye before shaking his head and bowing once more.

"I insist, Honorable Grandson, it was entirely my own doing, I was caught up in my own musings and didn't pay enough attention."

On reflex, I placed a hand on his shoulder and raised him from his bow, frowning to myself.

"I must correct you somewhat, Uchiha-san. I do not subscribe to bearing titles I had no bearing on earning, so I'll ask you not to refer to me in such a way."

I could already tell that Itachi was kind of like me in the sense that he got super formal when awkward. He was already trying to bow again and I had to struggle to keep him from doing so, damn was he deceptively strong.

"Enough of that, let's just call us both at fault and forget the whole thing even happened, ne?"

I'd went on this walk to loosen up for Kami's sake, not have a heart attack and be forced into a formality contest with a kid who was going to kill most of his own family soon.

He blinked at me before nodding, but he didn't say anything, which was his subtle way of tossing the ball back into my court.

 _Oh really, you want me to be the one to back down first? I don't think so._

I stuck out my hand towards him, slowly with a smile, as I didn't want him to take it as a threat and react accordingly. "Let's try this the right way. I apologize at my rudeness for not officially introducing myself, I am Haruo Sarutobi, and it is nice to meet you."

He blinked again, this time maybe in surprise, looking at my hand before taking it in his own and giving it a slight shake.

"I must admit my own fault for not doing a proper introduction either, Sarutobi-san. I am Itachi Uchiha and it is good to meet you."

The phrase _face-to-face_ was hidden in there somewhere. I knew he was in ANBU and could've been a part of my rotation at some point in the last three years.

I smiled at him before getting one of those stupid ideas that I'm sure my dad was sending me while laughing his ass off. I took a relaxed stance, my hands going into my pockets and a slight slouch being added to my posture, turning on the casual.

"Well, since we bumped into one another maybe we can help each other with our problems? I know I could definitely use another opinion."

I could tell he was immediately against the idea, as where I'd loosened up he'd seemed to go taut and granite-like before reassuming his stoic façade.

"I do not think that sharing private burdens would be conducive to helping you find your own answer, Sarutobi-san."

The shield was still up, I see. Let's try another approach. I nodded, seemingly in thought while casting a look towards the direction of the hospital that I made sure he caught.

"I would normally agree with you, Uchiha-san. However, I've found that keeping all of your thoughts to yourself only hurts others…one should always have someone they can talk to."

I blinked, seemingly jolting myself out of my moment of introspection, to look back at him in time catch his eyes scrutinizing me before fading back into polite interest.

I had his attention then, good. It was time to layer on a little emotion and go in for the kill.

"I would normally speak with my…my mother about such things but she is currently indisposed." I didn't catch any tells at this point, he might've noticed what I was trying to do, damn. I continued unabated though, wanting at least to give him something else to think about before he ended our conversation.

"Confidante or not, I would not wish to place my own concerns on her when she should be focused on recovering. Family is important, no matter if they're family by blood or bond, don't you think? It's hard not to help them when they don't know how to help themselves."

I'd really done it now, those words constructed on my own assumption of what weighed on his mind.

His eyes had widened perceptibly for a good second while I smiled easily at him, before he reassumed his blank slate stare, though I caught sight of _something_ in his gaze for that moment.

Did Itachi gain a little respect for me or did he acknowledge my play as well made?

"I see. I'm sorry for your mother's condition. Nevertheless, I should be returning to the clan compound." He abruptly bowed to me, a gesture that I hurried to return, before he went on his way.

Well, I guess that could've gone worse… then Itachi stopped and spoke without turning back to me.

"As for your own peace of mind, I suggest that you don't forget to step back to breathe now and again, Sarutobi-san."

I responded automatically. "Arigato, Uchiha-san." He moved on without another word after that.

I stared after him for a good while, my mind a bit abuzz with the interaction.

Had I just succeeded in mind-fucking with the superior and unnaturally skilled Itachi Uchiha or had he mind-fucked me in return without my notice?

I wasn't quite sure, but I did know that I returned to my own clan compound feeling a good deal lighter than I had in a while.

The next morning dawned almost too early for me. I rushed a bit to change into the clothes my mother had bought me to wear to the Academy.

I didn't wear anything too fancy, just a dark green shirt with the Sarutobi clan crest and Konoha Leaf embroidered on the sleeves. I tossed on a pair of dark shinobi pants, taped at the ankles, which felt strange but snug.

The shinobi sandals were a bit uncomfortable, to be honest. However, I bore with them as their functionality overruled the way they somewhat chafed my feet. The grooves on the bottom were great for getting traction, and from that leverage, so for that reason I suffered silently.

I set out for the ninja school after a hasty breakfast to find my grandfather and brothers were waiting to escort me for my first day. I had Naruto riding on my shoulders while my grandfather held my hand in one of his, his other occupied with holding a fidgety Konohamaru.

Apparently, not many ninja classes were being formed this year due to a lack of applicants. They only had two teachers out front to call together their students into classes.

I saw several kids being dropped off by their parents, many of them experienced shinobi themselves or civilians almost as excited as their child at the chance to have a ninja in the family. Most of these people bowed to my grandfather upon our arrival, which I studiously ignored along with the looks the other children were giving me.

I focused on the Academy building itself to occupy my attention, again being particular about the type of attention I got.

It was actually a part of the same administration hub that the Hokage office and mission assignment desk were located at. I guess that made sense, having the ninja facilities that took care of the running of daily ninja activities grouped all together would avoid running around the village just to get anything done.

I let Naruto down from my shoulders, talking to making sure to keep his attention on me so he didn't notice the looks he was getting from the rest of the people. I caught looks of pity or suspicion being tossed towards me, which I had to resist responding to with less pleasant looks of my own.

Grandfather had moved away to speak with one of the teachers, who I assumed would be mine otherwise I didn't see why grandpa would be talking to him. He was a rather unassuming fellow with a thin face and brown hair that hung down to hide his eyes.

I wondered how he was able to see anything behind there.

Not long after that we were called to stand before both instructors, who proceeded to call out the names of those who'd be in their class. I survived the first teacher's roll call, as I had assumed.

"…Sarutobi Haruo, Tenten…"

Hey, did that mean that I was in Team Guy's class?

I was both enthused and dismayed at this news, as on one hand I could form bonds with them early on and become their friend. On the other hand, I'd have to stop myself from doing my best to avoid taking the Rookie of the Year spot from Neji, as those three wouldn't end up on the same team if I did.

Speaking of the Hyūga, I noticed him standing to one side of the class by himself, his arms crossed and eyes closed in full on broody douche-mode. Fantastic.

I also saw another kid amongst the others who seemed somewhat hyper and, going by that and his shiny dark hair alone I was able to determine he was Lee.

Before I could decide which to approach first, I was blind-sided by a pink blur with brown hair pulled back into buns. Wait…buns?

A girl stood before me in a blouse of the aforementioned color pink, fastened together with yellow buttons down the front. Her brown hair was indeed pulled back into two identical buns and her bangs fell over her forehead. Her cheeks were a rosy red, although I was unsure why, because she wasn't out of breath and didn't look embarrassed.

It seemed like first I was going to get to know the kunoichi member of Team Guy.

The girl stabbed a finger at me and spoke to me in a not so quiet tone. "It _is_ you! You're the one who gave us all candy fruit that one day!"

I honestly blanked for a good second, having no clue what she was talking about. Then my legs throbbed in phantom pain as I recalled how much it had sucked carrying all those parcels to the orphanage when I first set out to find Naruto.

Hang on a moment, Tenten _was_ an orphan, wasn't she? Not having a last name made that kind of obvious, I guess. Still it was now a part of a long list of things I'd overlooked already.

I blinked at her, just to make her feel the weight of awkwardness in the air her loud statement had caused. Then I took pity on her and plastered my easy smile onto my face, it being a carbon copy from my dad's own.

"I did do that and I hope you liked them. I'm Haruo Sarutobi and it's nice to meet you."

I purposefully bowed to her first, knowing that that put people who were 'beneath my station' at ease. Kami, I feel a little dirty just thinking like that, even in mocking. Anyways, it was an informal break of etiquette, a trick that I learned from my mom, something she'd used whenever she went out amongst the villagers.

A little humbleness went a long way towards having people treat you normally, she'd said.

Tenten seemed to recall her own manners at this point, bowing while returning the introduction and trying not to let me see her face redden a bit more than normal at her overzealousness. I saw it anyway, but I didn't comment, thinking it was pretty cute of her get flustered about such a small thing.

What astonished me was the complete control I had over myself. All those sessions of meditation that I thought useless over the last year were coming in handy when it came to meeting new people. First Itachi, now Tenten…this was something that would've made the old me break out into sweats and run at the mouth.

Thank you, grandpa, mom, and dad for this new me that wasn't a complete bumbling, troglodyte. Now as long I can keep my cool through puberty…I didn't want to think about that just yet.

As if summoned by the mere thought of him though, my grandpa appeared to lay a hand on my shoulder. "Ah, there you are Haruo, making friends already?" He smiled as easily as I had at Tenten, who almost fell over herself to greet the Hokage, definitely flushing now.

I had to wonder if all Sarutobi were able to replicate that smile or if it was just my immediate family.

"That's quite alright, dear. I just wanted to wish my grandson a good first day and I'm happy to see he's already off to a good start."

I tuned back into the conversation just in time to flash my grandpa a smile before he squeezed my shoulder one last time and left. He had a struggling Naruto in tow, who'd apparently been on the cusp of a fight with some of the boys from the other class.

He recovered in time to shout encouragement to me and wishes for a good first day.

I smiled at him and raised my hand in farewell, which he responded with his own enthusiastic flailing. Tenten had been watching all of this with a moue of curiosity and…sadness?

We were both startled out of our observations by our teacher calling us all to attention so that we could follow him to our classroom. I smiled at Tenten and waved her ahead of me, getting a shy smile in return before we lined up with our classmates.

We ended up in a classroom that looked similar to the one that Naruto would be in with Iruka next year. I couldn't help but wonder if all the classrooms were uniform.

I placed myself in the back toward a corner, my grandfather's ninja lessons coming into play already.

' _Don't show your back to anyone you don't have complete trust in'_ and _'find a wall or corner to put your back to when in a new environment, that way you're better to get the whole picture instead of bits and pieces'._

I ended up next to – shock and horror – a Nara who seemed to be doing his best to fall asleep.

So I, being the entirely nice and polite young man I was, leaned over to murmur into his ear. "Would you like me to sing you a lullaby to help you out there?"

He reflexively nodded with a bleary smile. "Yeah, that'd be really nice of you."

I gave him a second to process the whole situation, before he raised his head up high enough to glare lightly at my bemused smile. "That was unnecessarily cruel, man."

I shrugged at him and chuckled. "Unfortunately, I save the singing only for when my little brother needs a nap." I offered him my hand. "I'm Haruo Sarutobi, nice to meet you."

He gave my person and then my hand a considering once over, before he gave me a lackadaisical handshake that consisted of me doing the work for both of us. "Laen Nara."

"I figured as much, not many people with that same hairstyle and laziness combination outside of the Nara. No offense." I said, making light conversation while I unloaded a few things from my bag onto the desk.

He did look _exactly_ like Shikamaru, Shikaku, and every other male Nara though, classic ponytail included. Heck, he even had a narrow face, a slumped posture, and black eyes to match his hair.

He waved at me carelessly while settling his head back onto his arms. "None taken, we do have that reputation, after all."

He seemed pretty easy-going, like all Nara really, so not that hard to make a friend of.

I allowed the teacher to gain my attention for the beginning of class. I couldn't help smiling to myself when I saw Laen yawn before going back to his nap and Tenten snap to attention with a pencil already poised to take notes a few rows down from me.

I took a deep breath as I made a silent wish to be ready for the ninja world by the time I was done here, that I would find a balance between my mother's compassion, my father's playfulness, and my grandfather's patience, to emerge as a ninja that could make a difference.

After all, stopping to take a breath every now and then was important.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Hello once again, my lovelies! The one who's Roars Rend is back with a chapter update for you hungry folks, so enjoy your noms.

This is the Time Skip chapter, where the pace picks up a bit to get to the meat of matters. So make sure you pay attention early on as some things that happen are explained there.

As always read, review, and enjoy…all up to you, of course. Roarend Darkhowl out.

P.S. Laen is pronounced like lane, just to clear that up for those who were tripping up on his name.

P.S.S. Also, I don't own Naruto…but you already knew that, I hope.

The Prodigal Sun

Chapter 6: Monkey Time Warp

 _My mother's funeral took place the year after I started the Academy and was attended by many, which wasn't too surprising as she'd been well liked in the village for her kind nature._

 _My grandfather presided over the ceremony and I was left to watch over Ko. He knew something was wrong, but couldn't fully understand why mommy was gone._

 _Any comments made within earshot about Naruto being there with us were ignored other than me hugging him to me a bit tighter. I had him spend the night with us later, not wanting us all to be separated while we grieved._

 _I didn't take more than a week off from the Academy, with Tenten volunteering to bring me my homework and Laen tagging along sometimes._

 _Naruto and his classmates started attending the Academy soon after that._

 _I ended up having to put several teachers in their place (a.k.a. used my status to put the fear of the Third in them) when I found them trying to discriminate against my little brother._

 _During the Rookie Nine's first year, strains in the relationship between the village and the Uchiha clan peaked and the inevitable happened._

 _I didn't kid myself into thinking I could've done anything to stop the massacre. I wasn't really somebody yet, I was still just the Third's grandson who was expected to sit and listen when the grown-ups talked._

 _The change it produced in Sasuke was oddly reminiscent of a toned down Obito, a slow burning build up of hatred for his formerly beloved brother surfaced along with a need for control in his life, control that he sought through power._

 _It was at that point I knew that Itachi, and to a good degree Shisui, were the lucky few Uchihas that didn't allow their hate to rule them, something that Sasuke was quickly allowing to hinder him._

 _I wondered for a while after that why Itachi would place such a hindrance as hatred on his brother if he wanted him to kill him later on in atonement._

 _The years went on with my own training under my grandfather now including ninjutsu and taijutsu. Apparently, my grandfather had informed my instructors not to teach me the Academy style taijutsu as he was going to teach me one himself._

 _I began studying what amounted to Monkey Style Kung-fu under him and Enma._

 _Oh sure, they called it Saru-ken_ (MonkeyFist) _, but if it was a style taught to imitate the movements of monkeys, it was Monkey Style freaking Kung-fu, no bones about it._

 _I rolled, flipped, and performed acrobatics I shocked_ myself _at being capable of, all in response to grandpa's 'monkey evasion training', which had him throwing rocks at me._

 _I pummeled training posts endlessly, long after the fronts and backs of my knuckles and the outside of my wrists went numb or bled, those being the main areas emphasized in the hand strikes of the style. I kicked those same posts into submission with all the different parts of my feet, the outer and inner edges, the top and the ball, etc. until my feet collapsed beneath me._

 _I thanked Kami for the Sarutobi onsen, even if I sometimes practiced too hard for it to soothe all my aches._

 _Enma emphasized that for a beginning human practitioner like myself, it was necessary for me to form what he called the 'Mindset of the Monkey'. That meant that I had to get into the 'character' of my style to use it proficiently at my level._

 _I literally had to_ act _like a monkey, facial expressions and all._

 _This acting sort of bled over into my actual disposition, because I was supposed to be a 'happy monkey', a mischievous monkey. I subsequently started breaking out of my shell, allowing myself to have fun and be little reckless._

 _It was my second time being young, so I guess you could cut me a little slack._

 _I was rewarded jutsu only based on my own merits at my own request. My grandfather kept his promise and personally taught me the Sarutobi clan secret ninjutsu_ _Katon: Goen no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Flame Technique)_ __ _which was the jutsu equivalent to shooting a flamethrower out of your mouth._

 _It goes without saying it quickly became my favorite technique…because flamethrower._

 _Anything else that I learned was only in recognition of milestones I myself set, whether they were accomplishments in academics, in training my taijutsu, or training my bōjutsu._

 _Grandpa regained some of the spirit that my mother's death seemed to drain from him when on my tenth birthday I asked for a bō and instruction on how to use it._

 _Tenten hadn't discovered her love of weapons yet, but I had shown a certain degree of interest in the bō since my father and grandfather were known for using it. That interest only grew further after I learned that it was one of the only weapons compatible with Saru-ken._

 _My poor female classmate actually hadn't decided on any specialty since I logically walked her through why dedicating yourself to one person's specialty was a bad way of limiting your potential, no matter if that person was Tsunade Senju of the Sennin or no._

 _If she was still having trouble after graduation, I planned on helping her._

 _Now when it came to academics, I allowed myself to remain right behind Neji for top spot in the class…is what I'd like to say. I might've overestimated myself a little bit early on._

 _It was hard enough just keeping up with the rest of the upper echelon, let alone keep at Neji's heels. Math was my downfall, the calculations and formulas a freaking difficult as they'd been when I went through school originally._

 _I kept up with the Hyūga genius at almost everything else, not really having a rivalry with him as he rebuffed any attempts to socialize let alone compete, however that seemed to go out the window during taijutsu practice._

 _We got matched a few times and that was all it took to make him take me seriously._

 _I forced a draw the first match we had, clinging onto him when he went to knock me out of the circle of contention. After that, he scooped up the only victories of our clashes, with me forcing a few more ties here and there, but I made sure to make him work for it. I also got the impression he was not happy with how I'd be smiling and laughing at him during the matches, my explanation that it was a part of training my taijutsu style not appeasing enough for him._

 _My explanation was true of course, but I won't deny I took some enjoyment out of poking fun at him._

 _Naruto kept me up to date on his own classes that were going smoother now, but still bored him to tears. I laughed when he nervously admitted to skipping out to go and prank some people._

 _His tendency to prank others was a source of much amusement to the monkey in me more than anything._

 _He'd eventually completed the reading I had set him, retaining a good deal more than I expected him to. I was happy to see he was taking at least the practical things that I assigned him seriously if he wasn't going to follow the Academy curriculum._

 _We trained together like I promised, but at_ my _schedule._

 _I trained with him the first day of the week, then set him some reading again (his whining was kind of funny) and a physical regimen to follow until the next week. He was allowed to ask me for help whenever he wanted as long as it didn't interfere with my own training._

 _When it became near impossible to help Naruto train, train myself, do my Academy work and go to the Academy itself, all while also trying to help Konohamaru learn the basics, my grandfather finally caved into his second grandson's wish to have someone that could focus on his personal instruction._

 _Enter nemesis Ebisu, oh how I fought that one!_

 _I could tell that Ko was having trouble dealing with the pressure of being the Third's grandson and this, combined with his own impatience, lead him to want to be recognized as his own person._

 _However, he wanted recognition and status instantly, not listening to me or grandpa when we told him those things only came with effort over time, and instead subscribing to Ebisu's teaching ability and its 'shortcuts'._

 _I did not get along well with Ebisu to begin with, but we were now at direct odds over my little brother's well being, something I was willing to take a scolding for if it meant Ebisu kept his own personal philosophy away from my impressionable younger sibling's teaching._

 _My grandfather's response overruled any of my complaints by dint of Ebisu's absolute mastery of basic ninja arts. It was the thing that landed him a promotion to Special Jōnin in the first place._

 _I wasn't happy about it, but I was willing to let my little brother work out his own life until he needed me to step in for him…just like dad had done for me._

 _I hoped that my parent's approved of that, along with the rest of how I was living. I'd found my balance, thanks to them and grandpa and Ko and Narut-_

 _BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZZT!_

 _SMACK!_

…I hated alarm clocks with a passion unending.

I rolled over to my bed's edge, letting my legs dangle off the side and touch the cool floor to wake me up gently. I waved amusedly at my yawning reflection in the body length mirror on my wall nestled between my closet and my work desk covered with sealing scribbles.

Grandpa had allowed me to get a start on fūinjutsu recently, giving me a few books to read in my down time. I found the art incredibly complex and knew it wasn't something I was ever going to achieve more than a journeyman level of proficiency in, if that.

My reflection moved with me as I got up from my bed and stretched up on my toes. I had grown another foot and little in the last few years, putting me at about five foot three. That was pretty tall for my age of twelve.

I sort of sleepwalked through my morning workout routine, tossing on my gear and cranking up my weight seal by twenty or so pounds beforehand by pure impulse. My dream was still weighing on my mind.

My grandfather had ceded not only the seal's control but also its design for studying purposes over to me yesterday, so assured was he of my ability to pass the Genin Exam…that was today.

That thought woke me up far better than the stupid alarm clock did, pushing me through the rest of my workout, after which I reset the weight seal to automatic and quickly showered.

I was getting dressed when a knock came at my door, so I answered without thinking.

Tenten and Laen had gotten pretty used to coming over to study or hang out, so I was unsurprised that the former had been allowed entry into the compound without a relative coming to alert of me of the fact.

Unsurprised didn't translate to the fact that I'd been expecting the person to be Ko or another relative, someone that wouldn't have gone red in the face and yelled at me for answering in only my pants.

"I'm sorry, Tenten!" I shouted wryly through the door after she slammed it behind her. I chuckled to myself before continuing. "I thought it was one of my family members, otherwise I wouldn't have answered the way I was!"

"I told you yesterday that I was going to come pick you up so you weren't late to class, today of all days, you baka!" she shouted back, her voice clearly conveying her embarrassment and annoyance at the situation.

Oh yeah, she did say that. Seeing her off kilter was totally worth it, though.

Tenten and I had a platonic relationship built on our drive to be good ninja, our easy-going natures separate from our work, and our natural attraction to one another. Case in point was my next statement.

"Oh come on, Tenten! You can't say you didn't like what you saw, right?" I said, barely getting it out without laughing as I continued dressing.

For a moment, her brief silence on the other side of the door made me worry, but whatever it was signifying was destroyed by the follow up of her laughter.

Yeah, so the natural attraction thing I might've made up.

"Whatever your ego needs, oh H-Haruo- _sama_! I absolutely basked in your body's magnificence, believe m-me! Hahahahahaha!"

The last thing that Tenten and I _actually_ bonded over was poking fun one at another. I did not need reminding of my following at the Academy though. More on that later…maybe.

I slid the door open, now fully dressed, and caught her as she'd been leaning against it. I was wearing my usual green shirt and a pair of brown ANBU-style pants, held up by tape and a belt with a few pouches hanging off it.

I deadpanned as she got her giggling under control, eventually curling my lips into smile. "Quite done, are we?"

She was wearing her normal pink, sleeveless blouse with the red trimming and yellow fastenings. With that, she'd paired dark green pants, same color as my shirt, and a standard pair of blue shinobi sandals. She still wore her hair in buns, no matter how much I tease her good-naturedly about them, with her bangs recently trimmed back to frame her forehead in anticipation of receiving her hitai-ate.

She nodded at me with her cheeks red from the lack of air her enthusiasm had caused her. "I think so, yeah."

We had a brief breakfast with Ko, who ate fast and left faster, claiming that he'd surpass grandpa and I by the time the day was over. It was easy to see that Ebisu was still at work…grrr.

I ended up putting the meal I'd made for Tenten and me between two pieces of toast apiece, so that we could walk and eat on the way to Academy.

Cooking had an oddly soothing effect on me, so I'd kept up with the practice, albeit at a much slower pace than my shinobi training, of course. I didn't have much down time, cooking gave me that.

We linked up soon enough with Laen who was exiting the Nara compound to the immediate left of the Sarutobi's. He was slouched and seemed to be trying to both sleep and walk towards the Academy simultaneously.

He'd donned a grey shirt with an unzipped black windbreaker over it with the Nara symbol etched in white on the back. It matched his dark pants that cut off at the ankle, under which he wore the standard blue shinobi sandals.

He didn't so much as return our greeting as moan and shake his head, as if it was too early for him to speak coherently.

Naruto himself joined up with us about halfway to the Academy, spouting determination about opting out early and joining my graduating class.

He said this even though he still couldn't get the hang of the Bunshin no Jutsu(Clone Technique) no matter how I tried to go about helping him with it. I honestly thought he could do it if he had that down, but I apparently underestimated how much chakra he had and how much control it'd require out of him.

He'd probably never get it down, but I knew that ahead of time and had faith that he'd find a work-around just like in canon.

Maybe after he failed this exam I'd suggest pestering my grandfather for a different type of clone jutsu, one that his overwhelming chakra capacity could handle.

We meandered our way closer to the Academy, Naruto and I purposely ignoring the looks that some people gave us.

Apparently, some people found it shocking that the 'demon' had friends period, the horror they felt when they found out I was one of them was not as amusing after the first time. I'd had to 'deal' with people waylaying me on the streets to try and convince me of the error of my ways.

I enjoyed shutting them down, the annoyance these instances caused me made tolerable only by the sight of their faces going slack in shock when I asked them to not mention my little brother in such a way again or I'd be reporting them to my grandfather.

My grandfather and I shared our amusement with one another when those same people showed up in his office claiming Naruto was corrupting me.

We arrived at the Academy and went our separate ways, Shikamaru slouching his way to class while Naruto continued bouncing alongside us as we went to the classroom to take the Genin Examination, as if he was trying to achieve liftoff.

We entered to see that Neji, Lee, and a few of the Hyūga's fangirls were already seated, with the latter trying to curry favor with the former and sit closest to him. I sort of envied and kind of hated his ability to ignore them like they were nothing.

His eyes locked with my own briefly, his passive-aggressive hatred for me and my amusement at it reaffirmed by our gazes. However, before we could get into too much of a stare-down, our vision was obstructed by Lee's youthful greeting.

"Yosh, good morning, Haruo-kun, Laen-kun, Tenten-san!"

Saying Lee was a little hyper-eccentric was like saying that Madara Uchiha was a little evil.

He was wearing his usual khaki training robe and martial arts belt cinched around his waist. Contrary to what I thought, Lee didn't always have a bowl cut, as evidenced by his braid in our early Academy days and his current swept back look.

He was a good friend though and even if he was only barely average taijutsu alone, he had caught the eye of Maito Guy with his determination so I was sure he'd pass despite his handicaps.

Lee was someone I could make time for, even with his over-the-top personality, as he was a great sparring partner because he tried so hard. I really liked to push my stamina against him. I think he also appreciated the fact that I didn't look down on him like most of the others.

Better training stamina with him than Naruto the living chakra battery anyways, that kid could really wear me out in training.

Speaking of which, "Holy crap, those eyebrows are huge!" Lee and Naruto hadn't met before now.

I bopped my little brother on the head for his rudeness, manners being something that never took when I tried to teach him. I smiled apologetically at Lee, even as Laen covered up a laugh with a yawn and Tenten held a hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

"Sorry for that, Lee-kun! My little brother can be somewhat overzealous and it can get his mouth in trouble! Say sorry, Naruto!" I bowed and forced the little blonde's head down to mimic me.

"Ow, ow, okay! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Lee, bless him, took this all in stride and immediately began praising Naruto for his exuberance which led to them both making outrageous claims about their chances in the exam.

In the interim, we all laid claim to the seats in one row, just as the rest of those taking the Exam to begin arriving. Thank Kami for good timing, as a gaggle of my own fangirls came in only to be disappointed to see no open spots next to me.

Yeah, I had my own fangirls…sigh.

It's not as cool as I thought it would be, to be honest. After all my time spent trying to build up the skills necessary to leave my grandfather's shadow, to be openly headhunted for that almost made me ill.

I was polite and courteous to these girls though, unlike some other so-called prodigies…I'm looking at you Neji and Sasuke. I could see how it would be easy to get frustrated with these girls, as many of them didn't necessarily take no for answer and had rather violent reactions to rejection.

Maybe ignoring and avoiding them was the smarter way to do things, but my mother raised me to be a gentleman and I'd rather face down an angry fangirl than go back on her teachings…but only just.

I _did_ boast the lowest number of fangirls actively pursuing me because of this, though. So suck on that, brooding jerkwads and your cold shoulder treatment.

Hijiri-sensei wasn't hosting these exams, which was a tad unfortunate, as he'd been a rather fair and open-minded, if strict, teacher. Apparently, he'd asked to leave his teaching post to pursue his dream of working in the Interrogation Branch of the Intelligence Division.

These exams were being given for the first time by Iruka-sensei and his assistant…Mizuki, who I caught giving Naruto scathing looks whenever he thought no one was watching.

I'd have to keep an eye out for him trying to sabotage Naruto, who honestly needed all the help he could get, as he never studied the Academy work and had a terrible recall on the bookwork I'd give him.

The written portion of the test was quickly sorted without incident, Naruto and Lee taking the longest time to complete it, with Neji barely beating me to hand it in first. It almost made me wonder if he pulled a Chunin Exam cheat with his eyes, just to be done before me…almost.

The throwing weapon portion was aced only by Tenten who got a…well ten out of ten, hmmm. Anyways, I congratulated her in my own way, saying she'd have nailed an eleven out of ten if the sun hadn't been in her eyes. She kind of shoved me for that, but it was worth it.

Naruto and Lee actually beat out most of the fangirls at this, reaching the middle of the pack. I was glad Naruto still seemed to be running the drills I'd assigned him.

The second to last, and my personal favorite test, was next – taijutsu. I capitalized on my license to knock Mizuki on his ass hard, even if he was holding back. It certainly made up for him dismantling the incorrect form of Academy taijutsu I saw Naruto using earlier.

I mentioned to Iruka-sensei that maybe giving him some hands-on remedial instruction would benefit Naruto, stressing that it be _him_ who conduct it. He said he'd consider it, as we watched Lee hold his own against Mizuki, eventually causing the bigger man to ring out.

The jutsu portion of the test finally arrived, with me actually having to hold back a little, and remind myself for the first time since the Academy started, that I had to try not to become the Rookie of the Year.

So no one there ever got to find out that I could do the Kawarimi no Jutsu(Replacement Technique) without hand-seals.

I had an average Bunshin and Henge, but my Kawarimi was the Academy jutsu I prided myself on, the ability to switch places with an object of similar mass without forming the seals really tying in well with another jutsu of mine.

My chakra still ran hot and dense through my body like molten lead, but I'd reined it in with my grandfather's help in chakra exercises. I'll never forget the day he told me to balance a kunai on my finger with chakra and then left for FOUR hours…I passed out when he got back.

He was a sadist of a different color, all wrapped up in his kindly grandpa image, let me tell you.

Needless to say, I passed rather handily, Neji was made Rookie of the Year (Phew!), and Rock Lee was named the year's dead last graduate (Double Phew!), narrowly beating out Laen by the Nara's own design probably.

Naruto failed.

He tried to leave without me noticing, but I collared him and made him spill, even if he was pretty choked up about it while telling me. I hugged him, my own new hitai-ate snug against my forehead as he cried into my shoulder.

"How…how am I going to become Hokage, and have everyone notice me, if I can't even become a ninja in the first place?" he said, distraught as I'd ever seen him.

I closed my eyes in thought, very much aware of the fact that Laen, Tenten, and Lee were looking on, all of us having agreed to go out and celebrate together.

"Naruto, you shouldn't be in such a rush to grow up, even it is to become a ninja. Besides, what do you mean 'everyone will notice you when you become Hokage'? Haven't I noticed you since you were four, hasn't my family acknowledged you since you and I met? Are we not enough?"

This was a bigger deal than it was made out to be. I thought Naruto wouldn't be as affected by the villagers' neglect if my family and I were there for him. Apparently, it still hurt him enough to want their recognition.

I was painfully reminded of how my little brothers had similar problems, one receiving no recognition and the other receiving recognition for someone else.

Even though I was able to understand one better, that didn't mean I couldn't relate to Naruto's position. I'd purposefully retreated from the world before and been isolated with my weaknesses.

Naruto looked up at me and shook his head in denial, his eyes wet and shimmering. "No, that's not it, nii-chan! It's just…" His face twisted from the frustration of trying to describe how he was feeling.

"I just…don't want to be seen as a nothing by them all anymore." He said it so quietly I wasn't sure my friends had heard him until I heard Lee sniff a little bit. He'd know all about people thinking you're worthless.

"That's why I've gotta get stronger and become the Hokage, that way I can be strong and wise just like jiji is!" He said, more to himself than to me.

"Naruto!" My barking call of his name made him look back up at him, startling him and the others as well, if their minute jolts were any indication.

I was looking at him in a combination of exasperation and resignation, as between him and Konohamaru I was reaching my wit's end with this whole Hokage business. I sighed and collected myself, thinking of how I could get the little blonde knucklehead to understand.

"Naruto…" I said, softer this time as I gripped his shoulders so he looked at me directly. "It takes not only the power to be strong and the wisdom to be wise, even they are just two facets of what it takes to be a Hokage…the very best Hokage."

I pictured my grandfather very clearly. The vitality that the leadership position had sapped from him and the weary resignation with which he had to serve in it without a proper candidate to take his place a second time.

I smiled at Naruto, tickling him a little to take some of the iron out of my words.

"You want to be the very _best_ Hokage out of the whole bunch, right Naruto?"

He struggled against my grasp until I stopped, then he took several breaths of air and answered me back with his own foxy grin. "Yeah, I wanna be the Hokage that surpasses all others!"

I nodded at him and recalled something that grandpa himself had told me early on in my training. "Then you have to spend as much time as possible building your shoulders up beforehand, Naruto. That way they can bear not only your own weight, but that of others. That way whenever someone needs your support, they know they can depend upon you."

I nodded to myself, once again thinking that my grandfather could be pretty cool whenever he wasn't being a closet pervert and ordering his ninja to kill people.

I looked back to Naruto and saw that uncomfortable glint of hero worship in his eyes again.

I'd never really wanted that burden, but if it served to propel Naruto to try harder than I would do my best to be a good measuring stick for him. I knew he'd surpass us all one day, until then I had to set a good example where I could.

"The traits of a Hokage: power, wisdom, maybe a little modesty couldn't hurt too…" I smiled when he scratched his head sheepishly, before hugging him again. "There is no rush and no hurry, just give it everything you have and all those things will come to you in time, otouto."

He sniffed and nodded into my shoulder, possibly saying a muffled "Okay, nii-chan."

I looked at my friends to apologize for the hold up, but I was slightly taken aback by the reactions displayed there.

Laen was smirking to himself like he'd discovered a way to get through life without doing anything, Lee was crying to himself while muttering something along the lines of 'inspiration' that I felt didn't bode well for me, and Tenten…she had a look of _something_ on her face, at least until I looked directly at her. Then she turned away.

I decided to focus on the more obvious but less eccentric of the three reactions. "Something on your mind, Laen?" My Nara friend just shook his head unconvincingly with that same smirk on his face.

I rolled my eyes at him, before collecting Naruto in my arms.

He yelped when he was suddenly taller than everyone else. "You're getting a bit old for it, but you're still light enough to ride my shoulders. Now let's go and get something to eat, ne?"

I took off towards Ichiraku's with my little blonde baka of a brother laughing on my shoulders, my other friends shouting as they hurried after me to catch up.

I'd passed the Genin Exam…now I just had to survive team placements.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: It's coming on soon, y'all! Darkhowl, the one and only, back again with a chapter update!

There's a little trouble in monkey paradise in this chapter that you might not have expected. Also, the genin team placements are in the next chapter so stay tuned for that! As usual, read, review, and enjoy…or else…just kidding…or am I…yes, yes I am.

Roarend Darkhowl out.

I also don't own Naruto, didn't you know?

The Prodigal Sun

Chapter 7: Monkey Family Problems

It'd been a rather good day, all things told. I wasn't too surprised then when it went downhill after we all parted company that night.

I came home to find my Aunt Inaho waiting for me, along with a grumbling Uncle Notoha.

My aunt was my mother's older sister, who'd married a Sarutobi herself, that being my uncle who was a second cousin of my father. She was very much the yin to his yang. My aunt was kind and a bit of a mother hen, where my uncle was grouchy and seemed a bit hacked off at the world.

Some would say they both had a reason to be the way they were, with their only son perishing in the Kyubi attack. My uncle turned out to be the somewhat gray-haired man my mother had comforted that night.

I never really saw them show any hostility towards Naruto, but they'd always find a reason to leave the same room where he was.

My aunt was rather distraught when I got home. She was looking out towards the back of the compound, wringing a cloth she'd supposedly been using to clean the dishes stacked in the sink behind her. When she saw me, she abandoned both to charge right up to me.

My uncle raised his head from the table to see that it was me, before returning his attention to his booze. He'd never really recovered after cousin Garuda's death, his vice not being something that my aunt approved of but allowed.

I blinked rapidly and had to hold off defending myself when the woman gripped me by the shoulders. "Haruo, thank Kami that you're home! It's Konohamaru-chan, he didn't come in for dinner after his tutor dropped him off and I'm worried, he was rather quiet."

I was already moving towards the back entrance of the compound, my own worry rising somewhat when she finished. Quiet and my little brother didn't exactly go together.

"I'll take care of it, Aunt Inaho. Thank you."

I could hear my uncle snort to himself as I walked out back. The old fellow never really took to my brother or me like my aunt did, he actually seemed to have a problem with me. However, now wasn't the time to question my uncle's behavior.

I walked towards the training ground of the Sarutobi clan, my feet instinctively picking the right path out of the darkening woods.

I found the almost seven-year-old rather easily, his birthday was in another few months. He was on his knees in the middle of the flattened earthen clearing. His panting breath and discarded helmet led me to believe he'd just had a rather intense solo training session.

He snapped to look up at me when I stopped near him, sweat glistening down his face. However, his eyes were looking at me in anger and frustration, my presence seeming to give him new life.

I was surprised when he sprang to his feet and sprinted towards me, his fist cocked back.

I didn't particularly care that he was trying to land a blow on me. He was constantly trying to ambush grandpa and I. We'd both become somewhat acclimated to him trying to launch sneak attacks on us.

However, this didn't seem to be the same as that, he seriously seemed to want to hit me here.

My body reacted to the attack like it was trained to, with my dominant hand snapping up to hook the blow downwards. I impulsively readied a follow up blow to just under the mandible.

I never let it go though, letting him fall to the side as his momentum overcame him. This was my little brother and he was upset…I didn't want to hit him.

Instead, I sought to reason with him. "Ko, what's wrong? Why are you out here so late?" I wanted to know what happened to get him like this.

"Shut up! Just…just stand there and let me hit you!" He came at me again and again, with me now just sidestepping his attempts to land a shot on me. He was so tired that I didn't even need to use my fighting style.

"Even if I did that, I still want to know what's wrong. You're not being yourself. Did something happen with Ebisu-san today?"

If that man had anything to do with why my little brother was upset, I was going to punt him in the soft bits.

Konohamaru collapsed to his knees after his latest miss, panting once again. I stepped forward to help him up and recoiled when he tried to bite me. _That_ was a new one.

His eyes were dimmed a little from exhaustion, but they still held the same anger and frustration as before. "Just stay away from me! Isn't that what you usually do!?"

I froze. A sickening feeling began to form in my gut when I saw that flickering anger and frustration in his eyes.

I was directed at me.

"You're a big-shot Genin now, aren't you!? Why don't you just go and hang out with your new ninja friends!? Or Naruto!? Or maybe have grandpa train you some more!?"

A nauseating thought was starting to take shape in my mind.

"I need to get stronger, maybe when I'm Hokage you'll be sorry!"

Ko…Ko was jealous of me…of _me_. He was lonely without the attention of his brother and grandfather, the only person who paid him specific attention was that ass-kisser Ebisu.

"For now, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

 _What kind of brother was I?_

Ko was…was almost going through the same thing that canon Naruto had…and _I_ had allowed it to happen, helped by doing nothing in fact.

These thoughts were almost like physical blows to me…I could almost feel them actually…then I looked down to see Ko striking me repeatedly in the gut. His blows felt almost like being hit with a paper bag, their force dulled by his current state and my own physical training.

But…he was crying…he was crying and I contributed to his tears…his _insecurities_.

Despite how sick I felt on the inside, I tried to hug Ko only for him to run away from me. Well, he tried to run away from me, but he quickly fell on his face, his exertions finally catching up to him.

"Ko…"

I turned him over so that he could see me, trying my best not to flinch at the upset, teary gaze he turned away from me. I sighed and sat cross-legged next to his prone form, dropping my head into my hands.

"Ko, I…"

I didn't know what to say. The words had come so easily to me earlier when I comforted Naruto, but now they deserted me.

I struggled to find my center, to feel that little something that meant my mother and father were watching. That I had the right answers for my little brother.

I couldn't feel it, I was alone in this one…well, not quite alone.

"Boys, are you…okay?" My Aunt Inaho had come to find us herself, the dishes apparently done.

I raised a hand, forestalling any questions or advances she was planning. My own thoughts were such a jumble at this point. I didn't need her to go and potentially make this any worse than it already was.

That may have been a bit harsh, but I just needed things to _slow_ _down_. I needed things to rewind to how they were. I needed…

What did I need? I was technically a grown up now, someone who was able to take care of themselves. I should be able to stand on my own two feet…

Until now, I'd always relied on others, purposefully not wanting to fall back on old bad habits. I'd always had my mother, my father, my family and friends to help me. I mean, I was getting placed on a Genin team tomorrow so that'd mean I was getting even more people to…rely on…wait…

I popped my head up from my hands suddenly, almost giving my poor aunt a heart attack when I turned my towards her so fast I should've gotten whiplash.

"My grandfather…Aunt Inaho, send word to my grandfather and tell him to come to the compound, please. Tell him it's urgent."

My aunt nodded immediately, casting a worried look at Ko, before taking off, her feet audibly cracking through the woods as she hurried.

"Pssht…why have grandpa come home…so you can train together in front of me?"

My heart wrenched a bit when he said that combined with the dejected look on his face. I shook my head and breathed, letting the air out through my nose. I bent over and picked him up bridal style, ignoring his feeble attempts to get free.

"H-hey! Lemme go! Put me down!"

"Nope. Uh-uh. Just pipe down for now, Ko."

He tried to bite me, which earned him a boop on the nose. I think that might've surprised him into compliance. I hadn't done it in a while, ever since he'd been assigned to tutoring actually.

I carried him inside the compound and sat him at the now empty dining table. My uncle had probably gone to sleep or something, I didn't care at the moment. It meant that we'd not be interrupted.

By the time my grandfather Shunshined into the compound, I'd cleaned Ko up some and placed a bandage on his forehead from when he'd fallen on his face. He still looked pretty rebellious and didn't talk to me at all, but he hadn't tried to leave either.

"Take a seat, jiji. We need to talk…all of us."

He showed no wariness or impatience, just looking at us curiously before he sat down. He didn't speak at all, just got out his pipe and waited for one of us to start. Ko just crossed his tiny arms, not looking at either of us.

I guess it would be up to me to get this ball rolling then.

I paced the length of the table, trying to settle myself down and not allow my nerves to translate to my words. I stopped by the center of the table, equal distance from them both, and gathered my thoughts. I closed my eyes and sighed, before reaching up to untie the knot that had been digging into the back of my head the past few hours.

The clatter of my hitai-ate hitting the table made Ko look around, startled.

I capitalized on having both their attention. "Today, I became a genin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves," I started, blatantly ignoring the fact that I had yet to be assigned a jōnin sensei and pass _that_ test. "Tomorrow, I will be placed on a team and receive a teacher that will be able to train us and take us on missions."

I looked down the table to meet my grandfather's eyes. "Tomorrow is also the same day that _you_ will take responsibility for the estrangement you've forced on Konohamaru." I saw him raise his eyebrows and remove his pipe to speak, however I wasn't done yet. "Please! Allow me to finish my peace first and then you can say yours, _Hokage_ - _sama_."

I think that one might've hurt him a little bit, but I was too upset to pull punches. Konohamaru just looked between us both, his eyes wide as he tried to figure out what was being said.

I settled my gaze on the top of the table before me as I continued. "Konohamaru hasn't been paid _proper_ attention to in regards to being raised as a Sarutobi…as a member of this family…so starting tomorrow, he will be."

Grandfather didn't interrupt me, looking at Konohamaru now, as the little boy tried to avoid his eyes.

I leaned against the table, my hands spread wide as I hung my head slightly. "Konohamaru hasn't been given appropriate teaching-"

My grandfather _did_ interrupt me at this point, sighing at the supposition of continuing our old argument. "Ebisu-kun has been teaching young Konoha-"

The slamming of my hands against the table's surface cut him off. "THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!"

Ebisu wasn't my favorite person by any means, but this went beyond him. This wasn't the same old gripes I had about Ebisu training my little brother, no this was about our family being there for one another and _not_ shoving them off onto others…like they were a problem.

My grandfather was standing now and looking at me very seriously, his own ire seemingly awakened by my outburst. "I know you have a problem with these arrangements, Haruo-kun but-" It might've been stupid to keep cutting off your current military commander, family or not, but he _still_ didn't seem to get the problem.

"STOP! Just stop for a second, okay!?" I walked to stand next to him and pointed down the table to a suddenly demure and quiet Konohamaru. "This isn't about Ebisu, this isn't about Konohamaru's teaching, this is about my little brother attacking me and _hating_ us both because we can't take the time out of our days to let him know we care about him enough to spend time with him!"

I was pretty sure that the whole compound could hear me yelling, but no one chose to intrude on us and I was beyond caring who heard. This was a serious matter and I was very close to losing what composure I'd managed to maintain.

My grandfather looked at me and then Ko, seemingly alarmed to find that Ko had tried to attack me seriously. He seemed to deflate somewhat and sighed as he sat back down, removing his hat to set it on the table while he rubbed his temples. He looked as tired as the night the Kyubi attacked all over again, only this time it was his own family that was causing this state.

I didn't take pity on him like I had back then, he _needed_ to hear this.

I walked back to the table center and leaned back over it, making eye contact with them both before continuing.

"So! Like I said, tomorrow I will have a team and a sensei…a whole new family for me to be a part of...one to train with and learn from," My grandfather gave me a smile, seeming to know where I was going with this. "So tomorrow, since I won't need so much training and instruction given by _this_ family of _ours_ , Konohamaru will take up the time I used to from now on."

Konohamaru, who'd been examining what seemed to be an interesting imperfection in the wood of the table, looked up suddenly. The hope and confusion in his eyes was a little heartbreaking, but it made me feel even more assured of my decision when I turned and pointed at him.

"Konohamaru! Starting tomorrow you will join me in my morning workout before going to study with Ebisu-san! After which you will come home where our grandfather" I turned to the old man, noting he was looking rather amused at my taking charge, him being Hokage and everything. "Our grandfather will have a clone waiting to continue your physical conditioning until dinner! After which _I_ will be reading you a text and testing you on your comprehension. Then, and only then, will you be allowed to rest!" He looked a bit overloaded, but my hands clapping sharply together brought him back to attention.

"You understand?" He nodded enthusiastically up until I palmed his head and tossed him down the corridor towards his room. "Then get to bed! We're starting early tomorrow, so get some rest!" He grunted in pain as he landed, before squeaking out an affirmation and scuttling towards his room.

Only after I heard his door close did I finally allow myself to collapse into the seat he'd been in previously.

I let out a long, tremulous sigh. Keeping it together in front of my little brother had taken a lot out of me.

I raised a shaking hand and stared at it until I focused on the Hokage that happened to be beyond it.

I didn't know what he was going to say and that scared me shitless.

I'd crossed a line tonight in yelling at my grandfather – something I'd never done no matter how much he beat me up in training – and I'd gone even further by _telling_ him how things were going to be done with this family.

He was the patriarch of the Sarutobi, one of my idols, and, as of today, he was my commander. I was pretty sure that he was going to chew my ass out and make me spar with him.

I shuddered involuntarily. I'd only had one spar with my grandfather and I still had nightmares about it.

So I looked at him, expecting anger or, even worse, disappointment. I wasn't expecting him to be smiling at me, somewhat sadly, but smiling nonetheless.

I definitely didn't expect him to look at his hat on the table and give it a considering glance, before he leaned forward onto his elbows to say, "I proud of you, Haruo-kun. You really care about others, don't you?"

I snorted, my emotions still a little off kilter. "…'One must care for others to care for themselves, one must care for themselves by caring for where they came from, one must care for where they came from by caring for those that also came from there'," I recited.

My proper response to discomfort was to rationalize the point with the wisdom of others. There was just something comforting – solid almost like concrete – that the words evoked in me, rather like a drowning man clings to a piece of wood after a shipwreck.

My grandfather's smile became a bit more pronounced. " _The Traveler's Psalms_? I never took you for one to read a monk's work?"

I shook my head and rested my chin on top of my crossed arms. "Monk Seng had much to offer in the way of caring for one's home, seeing as he saw so many of them. I figured that his work would prepare me to better defend my home and the people in it."

Only half-bull, as his was also closest book to my bed while trying to get to sleep last night and his narration was rather long-winded enough to make me sleepy.

My grandfather nodded and puffed once on his pipe thoughtfully. "I'll accede to the switch in training…but you have to dedicate yourself to bonding with your new team. Like you said, they are the ones you'll be training with, fighting with, learning with…they'll be your new family from tomorrow."

I sighed to myself at his easy acceptance, smiling to myself a bit in anticipation.

"However, _genin_ …" Oh crap…crapcrapcrap, his chakra was cooooold and so heavy, I slumped in my chair trying to keep my teeth from chattering. He eyed me seriously, my grandpa gone and the Kage of a ninja village remaining. "…I don't tend to take _orders_ from my subordinates, so I would watch my tone in the future when speaking with me in front of others."

I nodded convulsively, my hand reaching out tentatively to scoop up my headband that had been lying exposed on the table.

He smiled at me then and got to his feet, with me following him on impulse. He put out his pipe and clasped my shoulder with one hand, making me look up into his eyes. "Prepare for tomorrow, Haruo. You'll have to get to know about your teammates first and they'll have to get to know you, as well. Be ready, not all teams mesh right from the start, but I'm sure you can forge some sort of cooperation with them all."

Nothing he was saying was making me any less nervous about tomorrow. I'm sure he knew that though, his smile as he disappeared back to his office in a Shunshin was telling.

I rubbed my forehead, the discussion's end suddenly allowing me to notice my own weariness. However, with the problems with Konohamaru and the reminder of my meeting with my team tomorrow I found myself feeling a little…lost.

I stumbled into my parent's former bedroom. Specifically I plopped myself down in front of my mother's desk.

I came here sometimes when I wanted to work in peace or had a particular problem that I'm sure my mom would know how to deal with or…just when I wanted to channel the sense of comfort her presence gave me before.

I leaned back in her chair and sighed, setting my headband on the desk. I disturbed something on it that fell to the floor, making me groan and bend back over to pick it up.

It was a rough draft a map of one of the less explored valleys of Kuminari no Kuni, apparently one of our ANBU teams had been investigating the rumor of one of Kumo's jinchuriki residing there. That's what the notes on the draft said, anyway.

I wondered for a moment how it had ended up on the desk, then I remembered when I'd come here last.

It was earlier this year, not even a few months ago. Hijiri-sensei had just conducted a faux attack on our classroom with the help of a few chunin, which resulted in quite a number of curses and bruises after it was all said and done. He proceeded to tell us how we were going to be expected to take life from another during the course of our job, in both defense and offense. Assassination was as good as defending your best friend when it came to a ninja's need to finish an opponent.

I'd struggled with that lesson and come here to think about it, flipping through some of mom's old work to help soothe my thoughts.

Life was a precious thing. It was 'the journey of infinite steps' as much as it was 'a game, a dream, a comedy, a tragedy'. I didn't enjoy the possibility of ending someone's efforts to find themselves, to create themselves.

I'd eventually steeled myself with the thought that if I had to choose between doing nothing and possibly letting someone else die, someone I cared about, and killing the other person…I'd do what I have to.

Still, I wished that so _much_ of this new world didn't have to deal in death and that people could just enjoy what they had…or could have…

 _So, tell me about yourselves? You know, your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, that sort of thing…_

Kakashi had brought that up when he'd gotten Team 7, I wouldn't be surprised if our sensei didn't have a similarly ingratiating technique to induce the growth of familiarity amongst our team.

I flicked through more and more map drafts, my eyes roaming across their surface hungrily, the feeling of something hovering on the edge of my realization, almost tickling my mind.

 _You know, your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future, that sort of thing…_

I reached the bottom of the pile of maps, finding something I'd forgotten about – a sloppy drawing of the Elemental Nations that had my signature at the bottom.

 _Likes, dislikes, dreams for the future._

I stared at it for a second, almost jumping out of my skin when something dropped on top of it. Apparently, my vigorous map reading had shifted a tower of books on top of the bookcase next to the desk, my ears filtering out the thumping noise as I focused on reading.

 _Dreams for the future._

It was my copy of Peaceful Power – Sasuke Sarutobi's biography, the one grandpa had given me.

Dreams for the future, did I have any? Did I have any plans for myself beyond the scope I played in the storyline of a small blond boy? Did I live solely for that reason?

I held up my map in one hand.

" _Someday I want to go to all kinds of places and make maps just like you, Kaa-chan!"_

" _Is that right, sochi-kun? But you still want to a ninja like your dad, right?"_

" _Yeah, when I become a ninja, I'll get a chance to go and see the world so I can write a map of it!"_

" _Of the whole world?"_

" _It's such a big place out there, Kaa-chan. I want to see as much of it as I can!"_

I trembled slightly as I raised the book up in my other hand.

" _Sasuke Sarutobi was a really cool person, wasn't he tou-san?"_

" _Oh yeah! He and your grandfather are considered the two strongest ninja ever to come out of the Sarutobi clan."_

" _Him and grandpa, huh? I bet you're pretty strong too, ne?"_

" _Well, I'm alright. I'm good enough to keep you and your mom safe, that's what matters."_

" _You know, I want to become a good ninja just like great-grandfather, grandfather, and you! That way I can live without worry, knowing I can always protect my family and friends!"_

" _Hahaha! If that's what you want to do, then I think it's a great idea! I'm proud of you, my little monkey!"_

" _Heeheehee! Stop it that tickles tou-san!"_

I set both articles on the desk in front of me, where they almost seemed to stare at me expectantly. My hitai-ate glinted between them, making it look like the leaf symbol on it was winking at me.

I tilted back in the chair, my head hanging back over the top of it. I raised an arm up to my face to cover my eyes, feeling the moisture there soak into my skin.

"Thank you, Tou-san, Kaa-chan…"


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: **Yello, folks and folkettes! Roary the Rendog is back…ugh, nevermind.**

 **Moving on, there's a little bit of Tenten in this one, showing a byproduct of the changes that were wrought early on and some of Haruo being a bit uppity, oh jeez. Team placements as well though, oh yeah they have arrived!**

 **Also, I've been told that I haven't really spent a lot of time fleshing out Naruto as a character. I agree and I have a plan, but I'm going to open the forum for certain things. First, I'd like to hear your own suggestions for Naruto's taijutsu style! Naruto is going to show some changes as a ninja with the proper attention and instruction (correct instruction) that he didn't really have before the first time around. This is the first step!**

 **Make sure to leave a review with your suggestion and I hope you enjoy this latest installment.**

 **Roarend Darkhowl out.**

 **Also, I do not own Naruto…not even a little bit.**

* * *

The Prodigal Sun

Chapter 8: Monkey's Counsel

I'm not sure if I ever laughed harder then when I dumped a bucket of cold water on Konohamaru the next morning to wake him up.

It wasn't as if I could help it. I was already giggling a little when I crept up on his tiny splayed out form. Little guy had apparently been even more tired than I thought he was…

Oh well! No mercy! Muhahahaha!

I didn't just dump the bucket's contents on my little brother. I _chucked_ it on top of him. The way that he yelped and spluttered awake was priceless, but how he tumbled out of his bed and landed on his face…I hovered on the edge of death by laughter at that moment.

Thankfully, his indignant attempt to tackle me to the floor – that ended with him eating wood once again – brought me back from the brink.

He sat up with a groan, rubbing his head. "Niiiii-san, what's the big idea waking me up like that?" He gulped and froze up when I seemingly teleported in front of his face, smiling sinisterly.

"Well you see, otouto…you needed to be ready for our morning workout about, hmmm…" I pantomimed looking at my imaginary wristwatch, making him frown.

"I'd say, three or so minutes from _now_ …and that's exactly how much time you have to get dressed before I drag you out to the training ground wearing whatever you've managed to put on in that time. SO GET TO IT!" I snapped, making him jump to his feet and immediately bounce off his closet door twice before he managed to get it open.

I chuckled to myself as I walked back out to the kitchen, snagging an apple from a bowl of fruit.

Ko took a little under three minutes to get dressed in something to work out in and he was still shivering in mismatched socks when he emerged from his bedroom. I tossed him the apple and told him to eat while we walked.

He followed me to the training ground, the obnoxious sounds of crunching letting me know he was still behind me.

I turned to him, allotting him another minute to finish his apple, which he did promptly when he saw me staring at him expectantly. The core of the fruit tossed somewhere back into the woods as I began breaking down the workout for him.

"Okay, otouto. Here's how this is going to go, you're just getting started so I'm going to set you at the same level of exercise that I started." I looked up to make sure he was following along before continuing "Don't try and do the same amount I'm doing right now, you're not ready and you'd make yourself useless for the rest of the day that way."

The sternness of my warning made him nod rapidly, before his jaw proceeded to fall as I outlined what he was going to be doing for the next hour. I think he started having doubts about this right after I mentioned the fifty laps around the training ground…and that was just a part of the warm-up.

"B-but, that's crazy, nii-san! What kind of exercise routine is that!? Are you trying to kill me!?"

He pointed at me accusingly for dramatic effect, which I casually destroyed by booping him on the nose.

"Now, now, Ko. Don't be like that. If I wanted to kill you, there'd be such easier, if less entertaining ways of doing that." He gulped loudly as I said that with a gentle smile on my face.

Ko needed a taste of boot camp discipline in his life and I was more than willing to oblige. After seven years of receiving the same cruel and unusual treatment from my grandfather, I might've even been entitled to pass that on.

My smile faded a bit as I answered his other question. "As for the kind of exercise this is…it's the one that tou-san came up for me when I first started training, I've just expanded on it a little bit."

Ko stared at me in surprise, he didn't know much about mom and dad. I was always willing to share what I could with him, but he'd never really asked further beyond the basics. 'Were they nice people?' 'Were they ninja?'…'Did they love me?'

Seeing Ko smile to himself a little made me feel better about having our family training already. He needed grandfather and me in his life more, if only to remind him that he still had people that cared about him and that those who had come before had as well.

That being said, hearing him curse me out after we were done made me smile in nostalgia, recalling my own complaints, loud and long as they were. I don't particularly remember mine being as creative as his though, so he got points for that.

He'd done surprisingly well, even managing to keep his meditation up for a few minutes longer than my first time, right before he started complaining about being bored. I meditated for the last quarter of the hour-long session, allowing my body to rest and my mind to calm it.

My grandfather had introduced it to me as a way to focus the spiritual energies within me, so that they don't become lax with all of the physical training I did. It was a strange feeling, almost like flexing my chakra muscles, allowing the natural warmth of it to seep into my body and soothe it.

I was letting him shower after me when we were done, sibling seniority being a privilege in this case, while I prepared for my day.

Today…I was going to be placed on genin team and get started with my life as a ninja.

All of my preparation, all of my careful planning, every second of tor-…training and adversity that I'd suffered until now…today was the payoff.

Kami, I hope I get some people that are easy to work with.

This wish was what led to me – now completely dressed and fully fed with my shiny new hitai-ate across me forehead – kneeling in the clan shrine, praying for the patience of my mother, the easygoing nature of my father, and the wisdom of my great-grandfather.

I needed their support more than anything else on this day.

After getting my brother situated so that he didn't collapse into his plate of breakfast, I told him to be good for Ebisu and grandfather today, reminding him that we'd get together tonight before bed.

His enthusiastic assurance still ringing in my ears, I attached my weapon holsters and my piecemeal armor appropriately before departing for the Academy.

I had the standard ninja setup, one weapon pouch on the belt above the right butt-cheek and a second holster for quick kunai knife access taped on my right thigh. However, in addition to that I had a third holster strapped around my torso that held my bō at an angle on my back.

My bō wasn't anything too special, it was more functional than aesthetically pleasing. That's to say it looked more like a walking stick than a bō, right down to the leather strap attached about a quarter of the way down one end of the weathered hard wood.

It definitely had character though, seeing as I'd had it since my grandfather had given it to me a little over two years ago now. I could draw it and holster it without a second thought thanks to the hours of practice I'd had with it making it more an extension of my body than a mere piece of wood.

I also had a pair of lightly used armored plates that strapped around the tops my forearms. My grandfather had gotten them for my eleventh birthday as another way to deflect weapons, what with me not being much of a long-range fighter.

I trudged towards the entrance of the compound, my thoughts reflecting on the resolution I'd made last night. I'd never really given thought to my own goals in this world other than the obvious – not dying and helping Naruto save the world.

I could see why I wouldn't really develop any real dreams of my own with those on my plate already.

Still, I had to have something that personally drove me, beyond not dying…again. I'd nearly forgotten the intense curiosity and vigorous need to protect that my childhood had instilled in me all those years ago.

I'd just needed a bit a reminder that was all.

I was surprised out of my musings to see a figure leaning against the gate leading into the Sarutobi compound, one waiting for me no less.

I'd recognize those buns anywhere…the ones on her head, I mean. It was Tenten and she looked awful.

As a kunoichi-in-training – and more recently an actual kunoichi –, Tenten had prided herself on putting out a professional front for everyone to see. She didn't go for fancy or eye-catching garb and spent the least amount of time making sure she looked presentable. She wore simple and functional attire, made sure she was clean, and wore her hair out of the way.

I admired her dedication and to see her so disheveled made me reasonably worried.

Her eyes were a tad bloodshot, whether from lack of sleep or…well I wasn't going to inquire heedlessly after that point. Her clothes were in good shape, but she was wearing her shirt inside out, the buttons fastened on the wrong side. Her twin buns were also done up rather sloppily, one of them threatening to come undone at a moment's notice.

"Tenten?"

She must've been in deep thought or was more exhausted than I'd figured – something that made me even more concerned – because she jerked towards me in surprise.

"O-oh, hey Haruo."

In that moment, she sounded so unsure of herself, almost like she was adrift at sea with no land in sight.

She made a visible attempt at collecting herself, before giving me a smile that I knew was fake. "About time you showed up, I was wondering if I'd have to come and get you again."

I wasn't buying any of what she was trying to sell. "Tenten? Are you okay?"

She was quick to avoid my eyes, trying to walk by me and out into the village proper. If there was one thing that Tenten hated, it was showing weakness in front of someone, even if that person was a friend. "Yeah, of course I am!...Come on, we don't want to be late for-"

"Tenten!"

I didn't enjoy being a hardass. In fact, it absolutely clashed with my nature, but I could take that tone if I needed to. A tone that was hard, uncompromising, one that I'd mimicked from my grandfather's 'Hokage mode' way of speech. It was a tone that I'd developed for when people around me gave up or avoided their problems…because that was one of the things that I hated.

I'd spent an entire lifetime being too obstinate and mulish to accept any form of help for very long, thinking people were taking pity me with their aid. I'd allowed my problems free rein to destroy, because I was too scared to change and confront them. I didn't subscribe to that any longer and was easily frustrated when I saw people doing the same thing.

Tenten had been an orphan her whole life without being adopted, but she had her own strong sense of pride that wouldn't allow people to shame her with their concern. She would rather help others a million times over than admit one time that she needed assistance with her own problems.

I wasn't going to let her stay like that…like I had been…she was my friend, dammit.

She sighed and spoke while turning around, perhaps to glare at me. "Look Haruo, I told you I'm fine, so just drop-!"

I think I caught her off guard with the hug…I certainly surprised myself I know that much.

"Tenten…I'm your friend, aren't I?" She'd stiffened considerably on first contact and didn't even seem to breathe, but I felt her nod minutely into my shoulder. "Good. That means I know when you're upset about something and nothing you tell me will convince me of the fact that you aren't."

She shivered a bit before relaxing in the embrace somewhat, exhaling shakily.

"I don't enjoy seeing you upset, Tenten. I know that you're strong and that you don't like it when people try to help you…but I swear to Kami if you don't let me help you with this, I _will_ become a bigger pain in your ass than you're able to handle."

She let out a watery chuckle, keying me into the fact that she was crying…

I tried to step back from the hug, which was made kind of awkward by her hands coming up to return it. I smiled to myself a little, as I allowed her reel me back in to cry a little on me, happy she wasn't shoving me off.

"You're already a big enough p-pain in the ass, baka."

This time we both disengaged from the hug, with me gripping her shoulders so that she faced me. Her face was a little pink and her eyes were still a little watery, but I fought down a sudden urge to wipe them off and smiled at her instead. "I may be that, but you know you love it."

She shook her head and let out a laugh, rolling her eyes as she wiped her face free of tears.

"Yeah, you're really the highlight of my day." I chuckled at that, before looking at her expectantly. "So…want to share, Tenten?"

She looked at the ground, her hands clasped in front of her and a tooth worrying at her lip.

I sighed and looked at the sun overhead, noting we were going to be late if we didn't start moving. "Alright, how's this? Let's get walking at least, that way we can sort of make it on time and I'll tell you something that had me upset recently." She cocked her head curiously, as I allowed a wry smirk to cross my face. "Then, if you want, you can tell me about what has you wearing your shirt inside out and has your buns escaping their prison. Ogh!"

Her shove was expected, but her red face as she ducked back behind the gates made me laugh when I regained the proper level of oxygen to do so.

After her quick patch job – seriously she broke the rule when it came to girls needing forever in the bathroom – we started on towards the Academy.

She trailed behind me slightly to my right, so I focused my attention on the well-beaten path between the clan gates and our learning establishment. She clasped her hands in front of her while I began retelling the encounter with my brother last night.

"Really? Kono-chan was _that_ upset?"

Tenten knew my brothers well enough to see what was wrong with Ko attacking me in anger. She even placed a hand on my shoulder in support when I stumbled over how unsure I'd been about dealing with it. "I can't even imagine having to deal with that, Haruo. I'm sorry."

I appreciated the gesture, but I told her not to feel bad about it before forging on with the tale.

She was highly amused and maybe a little awestruck when I told her how I'd handled the situation. That didn't stop her from smacking me over the head though. "Idiot! You know how much trouble you could've gotten into talking to Hokage-sama like that! Even if he is your grandfather, you got lucky!"

I grumbled to myself a little over that one. I mean, knowing it was stupid but doing it regardless was its own kind of bravery, right. Right?

She was still laughing at me a little, until I suddenly looked at her expectantly. "Okay, okay I didn't bare my soul to you just for my own ridicule, spill it. What's bothering you?"

She retreated into herself a little, once again. I wanted to sigh and start shaking her down for it, but didn't think that would help and would probably get me hit again. So, I waited.

"Last night I was getting ready for bed after preparing my gear for today…" she started uncertainly, patting her holsters for reference "When I remembered how you got me off the Tsunade thing, how I should strive to be my own kind of kunoichi…"

I _had_ said that. She had been so hung up on emulating someone so widely recognized that she was hindering her own creativity, a key tool for any aspiring ninja's growth. It said so in the 'Ninja for Dummies handbook'…that didn't exist anywhere but in my mind.

She turned to look at me, a little of that hopelessly adrift expression back on her face. "I realized that I didn't even know what kind of kunoichi I was or could be, so what could I offer to any team I was placed on?"

I understood and had in fact planned for this moment, but that didn't make seeing her so torn up about it any more difficult for me to swallow.

"What use as a ninja do I have?"

She seemed to be talking to herself but I answered anyway, if only to shock her out of her funk. "You're not seeing your own potential, Tenten. You can easily become a very strong kunoichi if you just knew what ninja art you had an affinity for."

I wanted to lead the horse to water, not just push the solution in her face like I was being a smartass. I gestured towards myself after making way for an older lady with her groceries.

"Take me for example. Early on in my life, I didn't have a clue what kind of ninja I wanted to be to start with, so I let my grandfather take over. He's been a ninja for seventy plus years now, so I trusted him to understand what I had a propensity for by his observations." She nodded along at this, it made sense after all "He discovered I had an inclination for taijutsu and ninjutsu, so that's how he trained me. In addition to the physical aspects that I'd have to have to be a ninja of that type, I also took upon myself to learn another facet of that same range of combat that he excelled – bōjutsu."

I liked to hit things and had the chakra capacity to sling jutsu around, – not as much as Naruto but I had a decent amount – so why not add a little more diversity in how I hurt people?

Tenten was a bright girl – obviously enough to be Kunoichi of the Year – so I wasn't surprised to see her keeping up with me enough to have a question of her own.

"You said you didn't know what kind of ninja you wanted to be 'at the start', what does that mean?"

I stopped for a moment to ponder her question before smiling a doing a slight twirl, making Tenten roll her eyes, but smile.

"What it means is that I'm classified as a short-to-mid range combat shinobi – a close combat expert, like my uncle Asuma is and my father was." I held up a finger, before pointing to myself. "However, from here I can branch out into different areas of the shinobi arts. Come with me for a second."

We'd arrived in front of the Academy by now. However, instead of going inside, I lead Tenten to the target practice field in the courtyard. It was time to implement my plan fully.

"Now, because there are so many different types of ninja specialization, you can be a specialist of more than one aspect. That means that everyone has at least one trait of being a ninja that they're good at and I have a good idea what yours might be."

Tenten latched onto that like a leech, giving me a rather desperate look before she recomposed herself. I had to clamp down on my laugh reflex to look down the range. We were at the fifty-foot mark from the targets and I pointed down field to grab her attention.

"Could you repeat the throwing test from yesterday really quickly?"

She looked puzzled, but followed my request regardless. The _thunk_ of her hitting all the bulls-eye was quite a satisfying and familiar sound. I smiled and shook my head for a second when she looked at me – expectant but without comprehension.

"Okay. Now try again, but this time throwing with your non-dominant hand."

She gave me a considering look, before doing it over. The target's centers took another pounding, but this time she looked a good deal surprised by how well she did.

I think she might've been getting it, but there was one last thing I wanted to see. "Now, double-fist and take your shots. Last time, I promise."

She looked a little peeved this time and grumbled for a moment about not having any weapons left for the day. She still did the toss, but I think it was to satisfy her own curiosity more than mine.

Every single one of the eight shuriken and kunai thrown from her two hands landed in the center ring of the target.

To know about her skill is one thing, to see her skill in person is another. My own average throwing skills were quite humbled in this instance.

She looked at her hands in astonishment, like she didn't understand her own prowess. I smiled and clapped her on the shoulder, staring at every target downfield – each of which had a weapon in its center ring or bulls-eye.

"I think you've gone and answered you own question, right there." She looked up at me, my smile making a small one of her own break out "You're a weapons expert, Tenten. The only thing you have to work out now is what kind you want to be."

Her hug was as unexpected as mine had been earlier, but I took the thanks for what it was. I _was_ feeling pretty good about helping her out, after all.

We entered the classroom not a second too soon, as the door slammed shut behind us right afterwards.

I really hated those doors. They were time activated so that when the time for class to start came around, they immediately closed and locked out whoever wasn't on time.

This gave any teacher an opportunity to scold whoever arrived late without an excuse. It was a goddamn crime to allow such taskmasters access to another tool with which to discipline us.

Moving on from my problem with the Academy's doors, I made my way to my usual spot in the top row, plopping down next to a sleeping Laen. Tenten sat next to me – a development born of our friendship – and reached over to flick the pineapple-haired boy on the forehead.

He didn't react beyond muttering a 'troublesome' and opening his eyes to glare at her lightly. "You guys are pretty late, what kept you? Activities?"

Laen had his own unique quirks, separate from his being a Nara, which made him one of my best friends. He had a wit as dry as Kaze no Kuni and as sharp as a Tetsu no Kuni blade. However, it was his willingness to take part in things that were fun was what cemented our bond.

"Not really, we were actually trying to avoid sitting here and listening to you snore as long as we could before team placements."

He snorted indignantly as Tenten chuckled a little but before he could get in another jab our attention was called to the front.

There weren't any other classes today because of the team placements, so I wasn't surprised to see Iruka presiding over this part of the Genin Examinations as well.

He gave a rather standard and professional rundown of the expectations facing us now as ninja, more specifically as Genin. He then began to call out the assignments for our teams.

There was a total of thirty-eight of us. Three quarters of that number made up the two combined classes of our graduating year, with the remaining quarter being those who'd retested and passed.

Two were singled out early as being apprenticed to jōnin in specific departments and subsequently given instructions before being dismissed to their destination. That left the rest of us to form the remaining twelve teams.

The numbers really shook me up, as I didn't factually know of any other teams that managed to pass the jōnin test in this year besides Team Guy. That had a probability of most of us not leaving the Academy as soon as we thought.

I perked up when I heard my name. "…Team Six will include Haruo Sarutobi, Laen Nara, and Teru Inuzuka, lead by Ensui Nara." I nudged Laen awake so he could hear the news, an answering smirk appearing on his face as we bumped fists. I thought it was slightly cheating for them to place us on a team with a teammate's family member as sensei, but I wasn't going to call them on it.

Tenten smiled at us, but seemed a little put out by her exclusion from the team. A quick word about how our friendship worked – consisting of several heartening reminders to come by the compound whenever – was enough to perk her up a little.

I looked around for our last teammate, who wasn't hard to find seeing as she was glaring up at us, with her facial markings accentuating its effectiveness. Her little terrier looking pup was sleeping in the hood of her jacket, cute as a button. That image didn't really go with the appraisal and then dismissal the angry gaze of the pup's owner shot at her teammates.

I didn't know Teru at all, whether from canon or real life, which meant she was probably from the other class and didn't run in the same circles as the Rookie Nine. I _did_ know that she looked to have a problem with Laen and me before we even got a chance to meet, which was not a good start to say the least.

"Team Seven will include the San Brothers, lead by Kakashi Hatake."

Whispers accompanied the groans of the triplets, rumors of the jōnin who doesn't pass any team abounding. Kakashi was honestly the only jōnin I was worried about getting, his laundry list of failed genin teams overriding any sense of awe I might've had about being mentored by him. He obviously was still coping with his emotional issues resurfacing after being so long in ANBU and I didn't want to get caught up in that.

Better to let the San Triplets take his ire until Naruto's team came along to cheer him up.

Team Eight was a couple of civilians – from what I could tell – assigned to Genma, which I knew wasn't going to go well for them. Genma wasn't someone I could picture taking a team under pain of death, much less one that didn't meet his standards exactly. I mentally wished them well and moved on.

"Team Nine will consist of Rock Lee, Tenten, and Neji Hyūga, lead by Might Guy." Lee – who was rather conspicuous by how quiet he was – burst into cheers at this and returned to normal. Tenten sighed beside me, as Neji gave no indication of having heard his name called beyond a twitching brow, resulting in me patting her shoulder in consolation.

Iruka dismissed us for lunch soon after that…because there was nothing else to do but wait for our respective sensei and he'd call us when they assembled, so why not have a bite to eat with your new teammates?

Or at least _try_ to have a bite to eat with them. Laen and I approached our still seated teammate after most of the others had left, with Tenten giving us a wave before filing out after Neji and an exuberant Lee.

"Hello, Teru-san. It's nice to be working with you, I'm Haruo Sarutobi and this is Laen Nara, much as you probably know. We were wondering if you'd like to eat with us so that we may get to know each other a little better." Needless to say, my bow was crisp and encouraging.

I had to resist the urge to flinch backwards during my speech, as the glare had only intensified with the closed distance between us.

I did manage to get a good look at her for the first time and…damn. Let me go on record by saying that I do not objectify women at all and respect them for their own strength. However, our new teammate was ten different kinds of fine looking that had me forcing myself not to ogle and to speak properly like my mother taught me.

Her spiky, light-brown hair fell down to her upper back, with her bangs framing a set of smoldering brown eyes above her crimson fang marks. She wore an unzipped dark brown jacket over a gray shirt that might've been sort of _taut_ in a certain area and cut to leave her midriff exposed. Her legs were long and similarly exposed, clad only in a pair of khaki shorts, her kunai holster strapped to the left one. She finished off the look with the classic shinobi sandals in blue.

I felt rather than saw Laen doing his own cursory inspection of our teammate beside me. He glanced at me as I glanced at him, just as confirmation between males of how our teammate was caught somewhere between hot and 'holy damn!' on the looks scale.

He looked less than pleased at this, bringing to my mind an old Nara men's saying he once shared with me: 'The attractiveness of a woman is directly correlated to how troublesome she is'.

Well…I happen to like trouble, so more for me then.

She was rather brusque at cutting us down, though. "Yeah, right. I don't think so. In fact," She turned her glare to include Laen as well "how about you both just keep your traps shut around me? I _don't_ appreciate being teamed with you two weaklings, got it?"

I was more than a little shocked at this at first. An Inuzuka that's eschewing teamwork for flying solo was something that didn't really compute. I recovered as best I could despite this discrepancy, letting the insult roll off me like oil off water.

All in all, she was being rather harsh and standoffish. Something that bore looking into, as any teamwork we might have in the future couldn't take shape unless we were on the same page. I turned to Laen to see if he had anything to say, then I returned my gaze to her once I saw him give me the go-ahead.

"Get over it?" I tentatively suggested with an apathetic lilt of my shoulders. Okay, the insult might've disenfranchised me a little from getting in her good books.

Laen sighed next to me – already regretting letting me handle this, no doubt – as Teru's eyes grew wild and she growled under her breath. "What was that?!"

I narrowed my eyes at her a bit and tilted my head in confusion. "That wasn't clear? I said 'get over it'. As in: 'too bad', 'tough luck', and 'suck it up'." I smiled at her growing ire, while Laen took a rather deliberate step back from the quivering form of Teru as she stood.

I cut her off before she could retort.

"We're your teammates now, Teru-san. We're going to be spending a lot of time together from now on. It's best that you get over whatever issues you have with these arrangements early. Otherwise, they might impact our overall effectiveness as a team later and lead to the deaths of any or all of us."

My smile had become somewhat fixed and I impassively stared down her glare, watching it retreat somewhat from the iron edge my easy-going tone had taken on during the reprimand.

I had literally had it with this already and we'd not been talking for five minutes. I was a thirty-eight year old mind in a twelve-year-old body and I had to wonder if this was what having children was like. Constantly making the effort to be the mature one trying to make others play nice – when all I really wanted to do was enjoy myself – was taxing my patience.

Why did other people have so many problems, but refuse to solve them? Was everyone truly 'blind to a fault to their own faults' as Jisho had put? I had my own issues, but at least I asked for help with them when I needed it, I didn't bottle it up only to spew venom about it later on…not anymore anyway.

I shrugged tiredly, suddenly feeling a touch of the world-weariness the old me had had weighing down on me. I moved to walk past Teru – who'd not come up with a rejoinder to my words yet – and stopped just as I was past her.

"I get the feeling you don't have many friends, Teru-san. That isn't a knock against you, that's just a supposition I made from the way you treat people you've just met and know nothing about, so don't take it personally."

I heard her growl again from behind me, this time joined by her awakened terrier pup, but I wasn't finished yet.

"I'm not that hard of a person to get along with, really I'm not. I'd like to be your friend if you'd let me." I felt her turn around to look at me, but I remained facing forward.

"However, whatever problems you have with the current situation aren't going to just disappear with us ignoring each other. In fact, by choosing to isolate yourself from us, you only chose to create a self-destructive rift of your own design."

They were words that I'd wished I'd taken to heart in the past, but now they just gave her the opportunity to mock me. "Yeah well…who asked you your opinion on anything, Sarutobi?! What do you _think_ you know about me anyways, huh?!"

I turned to level an amused smile at her. "Nothing much…for now. But, I will sooner or later and when I do…I'll make sure to help you however I can. You'd probably be pretty cute if you weren't so upset all the time."

She still had a strange look on her pink face when Laen dragged me out by my arm, muttering about how troublesome I was.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: **Yo, folks and folkettes! THE Roarend Darkhowl is back with an update for you peoples!**

 **I put off putting this up to see if anyone was going to respond to my prompt from the last chapter, but I was disappointed to see that no one left a review or shot me a PM or anything about it.**

 **I'll reiterate it here, but fair warning there are only a few more chapters before it goes into effect.**

 **SO OPEN YOUR EYES WIDE AND NOTICE THIS!**

 **I'd like to hear your own suggestions for Naruto's taijutsu style! Naruto is going to show some changes as a ninja with the proper attention and instruction (correct instruction) that he didn't really have before the first time around. This is the first step!** **Please leave a review or shoot me a PM on what style you'd like to see him use.**

 **Now that that's out of the way, please read, review, and enjoy...do it for me?**

 **Roarend Darkhowl out.**

* * *

The Prodigal Sun

Chapter 9: Monkey's Hope, Dog's Complexity, Shadow's Depth

"Seriously, why did you have to go and rile her up like that? I mean, she's just going to be even more troublesome than she would've been before now. You realize that, don't you?"

Laen was bitching – well as much as Laen _can_ bitch – and I might've deserved his droning grumbles at my back as we walked out of the Academy. However, I was too busy devising a means of solving the conundrum that was our third teammate to listen intently to him. He eventually quieted down when I started leading him through the village proper.

Final year students were allowed to leave the Academy grounds for lunch, so it wasn't unusual for Tenten, him, and me – with an occasional Lee thrown in whenever we could tolerate his eccentricities – to go out for a bite to eat. However, I was heading away from the market district – where the majority of the businesses like restaurants were located – to head towards the outskirts of the village proper where the clan compounds were located.

He didn't speak up then either. That was most likely because we once in a blue moon would go to my place to snack on something I made for us to eat. No, he held his tongue until we passed the Nara and Sarutobi gates entirely, heading in a more densely forested area.

He yawned, making a nuisance of smacking his lips obnoxiously afterwards. "Mind cluing me in on where we're going and why we're not eating lunch?"

I didn't answer, mainly to annoy him, but also because he already knew and just wanted to hear me say it. He sighed. "Why are we going to the Inuzuka compound and can we at least get something to eat there?"

"Yes, to your second question." I finally answered him as the compound came into sight, turning to meet his mildly annoyed eyes. "As to your first…our new teammate is going to be a bitch to figure out on our own, especially now that I've made my intentions clear."

He nodded once, making a 'go on' motion with his hands.

One thing I _didn't_ particularly like about Laen was that he always made me verbalize my reasoning, even if he already knew what it was. This was usually followed by a dissertation on why my reasoning was asinine, which was then followed by him going along with it anyway so he could laugh at me afterwards.

I rolled my eyes at him and crossed my arms. "So…in order to further understanding and camaraderie…I'm going to see if I can get any information about her and purchase a peace offering of sorts."

I turned and continued walking towards the compound's gate, not waiting to listen to him cut my plan down to tiny, idiotic sounding pieces. He surprisingly came alongside me without saying and word, merely sighing gustily.

The Inuzuka gate had twin statues of ninken flanking its entrance, carvings of their dog companions snarling at their side them etched into the gates proper. It was guarded by an alert clan member and his canine partner who stopped us from going inside.

"State your business, pups."

I wanted to snort at the dog terminology…but he was kind of scary looking, so I saved it for the walk back to the Academy. "We're here to purchase some things from the veterinarian's office, that's all."

He narrowed his eyes at us suspiciously. "What sort of things are you looking to buy from there?" Geez, someone get's their jollies off grilling visitors.

I smiled placidly, shrugging. "Just purchasing a bag of treats for our new teammate's ninken is all. A sign of good faith and solidarity, you know? It's important for us to make sure she's welcome as one of the pack."

If there was one aspect that Inuzuka treasured above others, it was loyalty. There'd never been a recorded missing-nin from the Inuzuka clan since they'd first joined Konoha. By appealing to the gate guard's sense of fidelity, it wasn't long before we were entering the Inuzuka vet's office.

A familiar face was manning the front desk, one that almost made me fall over upon greeting us.

"Ah, Honorable Grandson, is there something I can help you and your friend with today?"

After regaining my composure, I bowed to her and grimaced at her returning too-innocent smile. "Dammit, Hana-san! I swear you're doing that just to mess with me!"

Hana and I were acquainted through my grandfather dragging me to visit other clan's compounds, to get a feel for the type of people that were the village's foundation. She was a few years older than I was and seemed to like pushing my buttons, much like she did with her own younger brother.

I'm almost certain she does it just to get off on annoying us.

She raised an eyebrow towards me in a clinical fashion, her nails tapping together as she clasped her hands. "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about, Honorable Grandson."

I was a half-second from a freak out when Laen sighed behind me – clearly a signal to get a move on…or ask her where we could get something to eat. Laen's sighs have many different translations, so I think I could be forgiven for mixing them up on occasion.

I shook my head, as if warding off the frustration her intentional poking at my sore point was causing me. "Never mind, forget it. I've got to make this quick – I'd like to purchase a small bag of your Inuzuka ninken treats, please."

The corners of Hana's lips quirked up for a second for a moment, then she placed a miniature packet of the aforementioned treats on the desk and rang them up. "So, who are they for?"

If there was one other thing that I could count on Hana for – besides pissing me off to no end by refusing to call me by name – it was her insatiable nosiness. She didn't do any kind of gossiping, she was just curious to an aggravating degree. Much like a ninken with a bone dangled in front of them. I planned to use that to my advantage.

I leaned on the desk nonchalantly, smiling absently as I passed her the proper amount of ryo in payment. "Oh, it's for our new teammate's ninken…we kind of got off on the wrong foot and I'm hoping a peace offering will tempt her to cooperation."

I saw her eyes sharpen at the meager amount of details I'd offered in that sentence and knew I had something. "So…Teru is your teammate, huh? That'd make it her little pup the one you're getting these for then."

I forced my eyebrows up in an inquisitive fashion. "Oh, you know her then? Do you know what her issue is? She was rather unfriendly when we tried to ask her to join us for lunch."

Hana nodded to herself and sighed, as if she'd expected as much, passing me the packet of dog treats along with my receipt. "I'm not surprised. That girl has been so detached and angry since her parents died last year."

A family tragedy was not uncommon in our line of work, but it didn't really explain some of the messages her words had sent. I bowed my head for a moment, commending the spirits of our teammate's progenitors to guide us in helping her overcome her isolation.

"How did it happen? If you can tell me anything, that is. I just want to get a better understanding of her situation."

Laen finally made his presence known, nudging my side and shaking his head at me. "Your being troublesome again, Haruo. It's her personal business. We shouldn't pry like this. If she wants to, she can tell us herself."

Translation: 'I'm not comfortable looking into this behind our teammate's back and neither should you'.

I sighed. It wasn't that I wanted to meddle in her personal life, but I wanted to know as much as I could before trying to help her.

Laen was right though, I was being insensitive to her feelings and going about this the wrong way. Hana looked back and forth between us, her eyebrow raised once again.

"Thanks for the treats and the insight, Hana. I think we'll see if we can't find some time to eat on the way back. You have a good day." I gripped the packet more firmly in my hand and gave Hana a bow before exiting the clinic with a somewhat mollified Laen in tow.

I sighed, running one hand through my hair in effort to settle my nerves. I hadn't realized how far I'd overstepped my boundaries until Laen had spoken up. I was being rude and tactless, which was unlike me.

"Sorry about that…" I said a tad bit shamefaced. We exited the compound and began striding back towards the village's interior.

Laen cracked his neck with an audible pop, before sighing. "I know you're trying to help, but you can be a really troublesome bastard with the way you go about it."

I made a pouting face at him. He didn't have to put it quite like that. Well, he was a Nara, maybe he did.

"Don't look at me like that, Haruo." He glared at me lightly, shaking his head. "You can't hand everyone their answers and you can't always figure their problems out for them. Meddling in her past isn't going to make her feel anything but even more upset towards us."

This was that dissertation I'd tried to avoid before, but he was really taking me to task here. It was frustrating trying to help someone without knowing what their problem was. However, rather than just be there for them and get them to share, I'd gone for the cowardly approach of wrenching the information behind their back from someone in the know.

That thought made me feel so confused and disoriented about my actions that I had to stop walking for a moment to collect myself.

Not an hour ago, I had helped a good friend of mine work through her problem only after she came to me in an upset state about it, despite knowing about it beforehand. I'd painted her into a corner with my concern, but I'd never presented what _her_ _problem_ was to her, allowing her to work through it herself before stepping in.

That was what I'd learned from my dad. Lend someone your help only after him or her has had identified their problem and had their own try at it, that way they'll appreciate even more after the fact.

I'd not adhered to that in this case, my carefully crafted patience and cavalier attitude souring upon first contact with Teru, leaving my methods crude and brutish. I'd forced my way into the person problems of someone I'd known for not even a day, trying to fix them whether they wanted me to or not.

I'd _decided_ she needed my help without letting her decide for herself whether she wanted it or not. Being her teammate meant that I had her back, but it didn't mean I was supposed to take care of everything for her.

I felt stupid – not an uncommon occurrence when talking with Laen – and plopped myself down at the patio table of a dango stand we sometimes frequented. He took a seat across from me, laying his head on his arms as he looked around for the stand's server.

I clapped a hand to my forehead and groaned, drawing his attention for a moment. "I'm so dumb. I went and broke my number one rule."

He nodded along, his hand waving over the familiar attendant to take our order. "That you did, troublesome rule as it is."

Rule #1: 'Let others try, before offering them your help. Let them fail, let them succeed, let them get frustrated and upset, but let them try. Because if they don't at least try, how will they ever know they can do?'

It was my classic response whenever Laen or Tenten asked me why we _weren't_ helping someone when we could. Laen – smug as he was while chewing a stick of dango – had no problems shoving my own words in my face when I fucked up. It might've been his second favorite pastime after sleeping.

We walked back into the Academy grounds later, with me having stowed the doggie treats in my weapon pouch. I still planned on offering them up later as an olive branch, an attempt to patch up the rocky start we'd had with Teru.

She didn't glare at Laen or me when we sat next to her. Her ninken was looking at me warily from her hood, but she just stared at the desk before her without offering anything to acknowledge our presence.

Not a good sign that.

I looked on as everyone took their seats, trying to quash the guilt I felt about earlier. I found myself perking up when the sensei finally filed in, catching Genma's eye and sharing a nod with him.

I noticed Guy and Kakashi almost immediately. The green jumpsuit almost vibrating in excitement beside the aloof gravity-defying white hair was rather hard to miss.

"Yosh! I'm here to pick up the most youthful members of Team Nine!"

Tenten gave me a wave I returned as they got up, while Kakashi gave Guy a look of long-suffering before moving forward himself.

"Team Seven, with me."

Ouch, his icy tone froze over the classroom, making the San's brothers almost trip over themselves as they went to trail in his wake.

"Figures, Guy can't wait his turn and Kakashi doesn't even want to be here. Oh, well. Team Eight, come along."

Genma gave me a lazy wave as they left, which I rolled my eyes at before waggling my fingers at him in response.

Our sensei finally stepped forward. He looked to be the oldest one there, maybe in his early-thirties. He had the infamous Nara short-ponytail holding back his dark hair. He had a short goatee, cleaned up so that it was isolated to his chin. Two thin eyebrows were set above a pair of dark eyes while dark-green shadowy markings encircled them from below. He seemed a little tired…or lazy, it was hard to tell.

"Alright, Team Six let's go."

He certainly sounded livelier than most Nara though. There wasn't even that much of a slouch in his shoulders either as we followed him out of the classroom.

While we followed him to a training ground not too far away, I was torn between wondering how this was going to go and worrying over Teru keeping her distance from us. When our sensei finally signaled us to take a seat, I took a look around so I didn't have to watch the Inuzuka seat herself a good four feet away from Laen and me.

It was a rather bland looking training ground. An earth field covered in grass, surrounded on all sides by trees was par for the course in Konoha, after all. The only distinguishing feature about it was the rather impressive and rare fir tree that sat smack dab in the middle. It was a truly a giant of its species, had to be over two hundred feet tall. The Land of Fire didn't have too many in these parts, the soil being a bit too warm for them tolerate.

Ensui had seated himself at the base of the tree, with Laen plopping himself down in front of him. I seated myself in between the Nara and Inuzuka, who didn't give any indication that I was close to her.

The cold shoulder treatment was surprisingly hurtful, although not unwarranted I suppose.

Ensui looked between us all for a moment, raising an eyebrow when he saw the gap that one of his students had between the others, before exchanging a meaningful look with Laen. The two Nara clan members seemed to have a silent conversation that ended with Ensui sighing and Laen rolling his eyes with a muttered 'troublesome' shared between them.

"Well, I can already see that getting to know one another is going to be rather difficult for you two and your other teammate." He gestured between Laen, Teru, and me. "I don't necessarily have any patience for squabbling, so I want this resolved before we go any further."

An impatient Nara, not a first but definitely not expected. Sensei was apparently all business right off the bat.

He narrowed his eyes at all three of us, making Laen and Teru glare at me…well, damn. I mean, sure the problem with us was mostly my fault, but Teru started it! I pushed down any childish whining I wanted to make and settled my burgeoning pride in preparation.

I nodded and tucked my knees beneath me as I turned my body towards the glaring Inuzuka. I heard a satisfied sound from behind me, but resisted the urge to spin around and smack Laen upside his stupidly smart head.

Instead, I leaned my body over to place head and hands to the ground, prostrating myself before our female teammate. I felt the blood vessels in my face welling in embarrassment and shame, but I just breathed easily to will them down, remembering my training.

"W-what are you doing?"

A sigh threatened to break through my reinforced composure, but I chose to speak before it could manifest itself. "I sincerely apologize if I upset you with my words earlier on, Teru-san. I merely wished to form a bond with you as a teammate and comrade however, I did not take kindly to your words about my friend and me. Still, the way that I handled myself was both presumptuous and rude towards you. For that, I am sorry."

It was the best apology I could come up with and I did act kind of like a jerk in response to her, not my normal self at all. I just wanted to bury the hatchet and move on. I hoped to score some good points so that she'd at least consider being our teammate.

Not a great first impression for my sensei and me, with me apologizing in the submissive way I was, but he _had_ wanted to us to resolve it.

I waited for a while afterwards before anything happened, with no one moving a muscle. Then I heard a sniff near my head and raised it slightly…only to receive a tongue to my forehead.

"Gah! Well, hello there!"

I was suddenly under a sloppy and affectionate attack by Teru's ninken with the dog's licking tongue forcing me back on my butt as it leapt onto me. I chuckled to myself and petted the friendly animal, noting the tail wagging at my ministrations.

I got a good look at the dog for the first time and noticed it was of a different breed than Akamaru was. It had a compact white body with dark spots dotting it and a pitch-black head. I checked really quick and confirmed that it was a she.

She grinned up at me with brown eyes and her white teeth stand out against her head's backdrop, before settling on licking my chin. I giggled a little bit, before looking up to check Teru's reaction.

Oh yes, it was priceless. It was magnificent. And with her wide eyes, mouth gaping a tiny bit, and a small blush, it looked a lot like success to me.

I could hear Laen snickering behind my back, but I could've cared less. I smiled down at the ninken that forced the temporary truce. "So, what's your name, little girl?"

"E-Emimaru, her name's Emimaru."

I smiled up at Teru, who was now looking at the pup questioningly. My attention was drawn back to the now named ninken (try saying that five times really fast, I dare ya!) who'd barked happily at hearing her name.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Emi-chan. I'm sorry for getting upset with your partner." Emimaru merely blinked at me before placing both paws on my chest to stand and lick at my nose. I laughed a little, before remembering my purchase from earlier on.

Emimaru stilled in my lap when I retrieved the package that contained the Inuzuka treats from my pouch, almost as if she could tell they were in there. I looked up at Teru, who was avoiding my gaze still, to see she'd also zeroed in on the bag also.

"If you'd let me, I got a little something for her, if that's okay?"

Teru finally met my eyes, but immediately looked back to the bag in my hand. "What is it?" she asked bluntly. She inhaled sharply when I removed the packet of treats from the bag. Emimaru was panting a little in my lap, her attention focused solely on the small bone-shaped morsels within her reach.

"Why?"

Teru's eyes had been shadowed over a little by her hair, her head tilted forward as it was. She was shaking a little, her hands bunched up in her shorts. "Why did you get those for?"

I didn't know if she was upset or what, so I looked at the packet before gesturing with it vaguely to punctuate my words…or lack of words.

"Afterwards, during lunch I realized how much of an ass I'd made of myself, so I went to get these for, well…ummm…"

I admit to being unable to say the words 'peace offering'. It almost didn't sound like it was enough to name the simple treats just that. Thankfully, I was saved from doing so by a Nara.

"They're an olive branch, a gesture made out of a want for forgiveness and friendship."

I'd almost forgotten that our new sensei was there and was surprised he'd spoken up instead of Laen. Then I heard a snore from behind me and solved the mystery…hooray.

Ensui was smiling. It the first time I'd seen the expression on his face and it looked like he didn't do it often enough. He returned my grateful nod and looked to Teru who was very still, almost stiff. "An olive branch only works halfway until someone accepts it."

Our sensei wasn't subtle, but he gave her the nudge she needed apparently.

Teru sniffed to herself and looked up at me uncertainly, her eyes a little red. I gave her a small encouraging smile. She seemed to relax at that and nodded towards Emimaru. "You can feed her…I'm sure she'd like those."

I relaxed, having unknowingly tensed up myself, and nodded back. "Sure, thanks."

 _I'm sorry, too._

 _It's okay._

It wasn't something that needed to be said, it would've probably made the moment even more awkward if it had been said. The sound of Emimaru enjoying the treats heralded the tension between Teru and me breaking away.

After she was done, with much chuckling done on my part, she licked my face again before looking at her partner and barking. Teru went a little red in the face and looked away from me.

"What'd she say?" I asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

She didn't turn back to face me, messing with her hair a little. "She just asked me to thank you, that's all."

I had my doubts about that being all the ninken said, but I held my tongue and opting to nuzzle Emimaru. "Well, you are welcome, Emi-chan." She licked me once more, before returning to her partner and growling something to her.

Teru snorted and picked up the pup to set her in her lap. I smiled and crumpled the packet in my hands, stowing it in a pocket to toss later.

Ensui nodded at us both, before deadpanning at the slumbering form of Laen to my left. He looked at me and gestured to the sleeping Nara, which I was only too obliged to do.

I thumped the lazy bastard on the head hard, making him groan before he sat up to glare at me. "I hate you sometimes."

I shook my head at him, smirking wryly. "No you don't. The rest of us are ready to start now, by the way."

He looked between Teru and me. "Soooo, how're things?"

I looked at Teru to see her rolling her eyes before she shrugged her shoulders at me. Steadfastly ignoring the effect that particular action had on her chest, I turned to Laen and smiled. "I think we're okay now."

"That's good. Now, let's all introduce ourselves properly to one another. I'd like to get to know about you all firsthand." Ensui leaned forward off the trunk, his eyes appraising us all.

He must've not been satisfied enough by the genin registration forms and education reports he'd gotten from the Academy. We all straightened a little at his words, even Laen un-slouched slightly.

I knew it was serious when Laen managed to summon up the energy to pay attention. I tilted my head back as a light breeze made the fir wave at me, the afternoon sun winking out from behind it.

I smiled to myself a little as recalled my resolution, the one that I'd made directly to answer this moment…what was my dream?


End file.
